Sage of the Elements
by BackwardsHazard
Summary: Naruto is attacked by a mob as a child, the end results end with him obtaining an affinity to all the major elements, how will this affect him? there's going to be plenty of humor and a harem, M for language, and suggestive themes
1. Chapter 1

**A/N Ok here we go my first story here on , LET'S DO THIS SHIZ!**

**There will be a harem in this story, I don't know who I will incorporate in the harem but I'm working on it, reviews and faves would be nice, they'll keep my going on this possibly long winded fic.**

**Also I do spell check my work but I'm not the best when it comes to proper sentence structure :/ if my sentences run on with commas I apologize but I do try and make them readable and bite sized so no worries about reading any massive walls of text.**

**Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto, if I did bad things would happen, **

_**-ooo-**_

"Talking"

_'Thinking'_

**"Kyubi Talking"**

_**'Kyubi Thinking'**_

Jutsu

_**Chapter 1: prologue, "Nice job breaking it hero"**_

A single change in fate can change everything. A 7 year old Naruto finds himself in this situation right now, for you see, Fate, the crazy bitch that she is, had it out for him this night.

"Gah this is so troublesome" we find our stubby hero, cursing his rotten luck. Only a month before the orphanage that had taken care of him all his life had kicked him out on the street, "Good riddance I say" Naruto huffed, not like he had many good memories of the place, all the adults there were always so mean to him, hell several times he even feared for his life after several severe beatings over very 'minor' things, though his pranks could hardly be called 'minor,' the flooding of the faculty bathroom being one of the more destructive things he's done, but in the end it never really did any lasting damage besides the place smelling funny for a few days as it aired out. However the bastards were a bit more resorceful in finding loopholes in their duty of taking in all the war orphans after the Kyuubi attack.

Naruto couldn't and wouldn't get into all the red tape, suffice it to say he was boned, royally. With that little loophole they were able to kick him out and there was nothing the third could do for him. So, emotionally hurt and hungry the yellow haired prankster had made his home on the streets, dodging the civilians that tried to beat him, Why? He had no fucking clue but like a certain pineapple haired Nara often said it was too 'troublesome' to try and sucker one of the civilians into telling him, even if he did muster up the nerve, He doubted that any of the bastards would have wasted their breath.

"Oh well." Naruto mused, "At least things can't get any worse..."

"There's the little demon brat! GET HIM!" a voice yelled from behind Naruto, he turned to look at a large mob of civilians and sweatdropped.

_'Was that tempting fate?' _he thought to himself, "Oh shit!" he took off running with the mob right behind him. Naruto was dodging random debris being thrown his way by the angry mob, including but not limited to; a beer can _'Great a mob of drunks.' A _brick _'Oh ha ha, a brick joke.' _A broom thrown like a javelin _'What am I, dirt to them? ... dont answer that...'_ A kitchen sink... _'Not even gonna ask...' _The witty thoughts Naruto had in his head with each outlandish thing being tossed his way, while keeping his mind off of fear took away from his concentration and that came back to bite him in the ass as he took a wrong turn and ended up in a dead end alley. "Shit!" Naruto cursed his luck turning back to see the crowd had barred the only exit, there was at least 10 of them, too many to fight and too many to fool. He wasn't getting away from this beating he realised. He backed against the wall as far as he could, fear and anxiety clouding his eyes, he slid down the wall to a sitting position. "No please" he whispered he noticed quite a few of the villagers were armed this time, unlike the times before they had just physically beaten him, most of these were carrying sharp tools and knives. _'Are they planning to kill me?' _The thought caught in his throat, choking him. The mob was only a few yards away from him now, one of the people threw a glass bottle his way, the glass projectile barely missing his head and smashing into the wall beside him. He flinched slightly as a large piece of broken glass cut across his cheek creating a thin trail of blood.

Naruto reached up and touched the burning red trail, they had never left anything more than bruises and welts on him before, this group wasn't out to enjoy a beating, they were out for blood, a shocked expression crossed his face. He looked at the gathering, fear slowly giving way to terror induced anger as he lashed out at his agressors verbally "Why!" he yelled at them, "Why are you doing this?"

"Shut up demon!" one of them shouted.

"Why do you all think I'm a demon? Have I ever hurt any of you?" The boy cried, a few of the villagers looked at each other uncertain, his words rang with truth, the boy himself had never personally done anything to them, but the majority of the crowd just yelled back at him.

"You are a demon boy, you cannot fool us with you're petty trickery."

"But why?" he asked quietly, only one of the people caught that, an overly drunk, overly fat man who had a large scar across his face, spoke up in a slurred voice.

"I'll tell ya why, ya little demon fox!" the man hiccuped lightly drawing away from his angry appearance for a moment before a deep glare filled his face. "How old are you boy?"

Naruto's face scrunched in confusion, "I'm 7, why?"

The mans face grew dark, a menacing grin twitched across his face "Hehehe and your birthday?"

"October 10th?" he answered slowly, his mind racing about what this could mean, would he finally learn why he was hated...but the real question was, would he want to know?

"Well then" the fat man grinned wider "What happened 7 years ago on October 10th?" he laughed a dark laugh, his eyes focusing on the boy, causing Naruto to break out in a cold sweat.

Naruto thought for a moment _'What DID happen 7 years ago? The only thing I can think of is...no...no it can't...' _His face turned from confusion to shock as he stared at the fat man only a dozen feet from him, turning an irovy shade of white as he paled in front of the crowd of angry drunks. "No...it..." he finally said at length

"Oh but it can Demon boy" the man spat out, venom and malice in his voice "That night The fourth Hokage killed the Nine tailed demon fox, you were born not moments after. YOU boy, are the nine tailed fox reincarnated!"

"It can't be..." Naruto looked horrified. A sudden surge of power rushed through him, as a tingling ran through his arms.

"Those whisker marks and that wound thats healed on your cheek are proof enough of the demon inside of you!" the man said with finality, Naruto felt for the wound again and in horror he realized it was gone, healed almost instantly, he knew he had a healing factor and that alone wasn't really normal, but this was just too much for him.

"...No...just...why?" his voice squeaked lightly , this time no one heard him as he hung his head in shame, _'I'm the fox?' _he thought quietly before he was broken out of his self pity by a loud roar, he looked up sharply and saw the thugs rushing him.

Naruto raised his hands in defense and time seemed to slow down for him. Naruto looked at the men approaching, the tingling he felt moments before turned into a bitter cold with a sharp wind flowing around him, the men charging stopped quickly looking at the boy in front of them. Around Naruto was a raging gale of wind and the moisture in the air had frozen, Ice began forming around him, freezing the blades of the weapons the men carried before they shattered into pieces, most of the men looked at the boy in shock and fear, but the fat man from before had a look of utter rage on his face "See, he IS a demon" the man spat, pulling out a large wooden club, he rushed forward preparing to crush the boy's skull, Naruto raised his hand in defense and the ice around him rose to meet the challenge, unfortunately the man did not feel the pain, drunk as he was as the ice speared him in the stomach, with a look of shock he brought the club down on Naruto's skull and a splitting pain ran through Naruto's head before everything went dark.

_**-ooo-**_

Naruto sat up and looked around, he was in a sewer with dark corridors leading away from him. In front of him was a large room, the steam and heat from the room causing a sticky feeling to break out on his skin. The only thing that seemed out of place in the dank pipe filled chamber was a large gate like thing in front of him. There was a small piece of paper on the gate with the Kanji for _'Seal' _written on it, Naruto felt strangly sick in the place, like an evil prescence was watching him. "W-where am I?" he spoke softly, not expecting a reply.

**"You are inside your mind foolish human" ** a deep reverberating voice rumbled around him causing Naruto to jump several inches in the air in shock, Naruto watched as a pair of deep red eyes appeared from behind the cage.

Naruto backed up from the cage, hands shaking and face torn with terror "Who...who are you?" he asked quickly falling back against the pipe covered wall

**"Stupid boy, that man earlier told you didn't he? I am the Nine tailed demon fox 'Kyubi!'" ** The beast roared the last bit and an evil smile spread in the darkness, the glittering teeth of its mouth shining behind the bars of the gate.

A look of hurt crossed Naruto's face "So it's true then? I am a demon?" The fox however laughed heartily, the exhaled air shaking the room.

**"YOU? A DEMON? HA, DON'T MAKE ME LAUGH." **The beast chuckled, **"The only thing demonic about you is me foolish human, that fleshy sack of meat you killed was as big a fool as you. You are no demon, you're not worthy of that title human." **The fox grinned again.

"Then what am I?" The blonde asked, fearful of what the beast would tell him

**"Well seeing as you're asking nicely" **the creature mused ** "And I like that look of fear in your eyes, I'll tell you. 7 years ago, when I attacked this village, your father the fourth Hokage..."** The fox started but Naruto interrupted it in shock.

"The fourth Hokage was my dad!" Naruto's breath caught in his throat, Old man third had told him he was an orphan, if that was a lie, why didn't the third tell him, before he could ask the beast more he was pulled from his thoughts.

**"Yes stupid mortal, interrupt me again and I'll rend you soul to pieces." ** The threat was an idle one seeing as the seal would keep it from killing the boy, but Naruto didn't know that now did he? **"As I was saying, the Fourth fought me outside your village and in one of the most insulting things any human has ever done to me, he summoned the shinigami and sealed my soul and powers into you boy, his son. **the foxes face screwed up in a frown,** "He then sealed my body and the source of half my might into him and the shinigami ate my body and his soul, to forever be trapped in his gullet!"** The fox growled deeply at the spawn of its most hated enemy. **"To answer your earlier question, you boy, are the bearer of a demon. In the words of your weak language you are known as a Jinchuriki, a human sacrifice meant to hold back the powers of a demon, and as much as I loathe the fact, you are also the only thing keeping me alive, this seal here binds us together, if you die, I die, its as simple as that."**

Naruto was silent a moment, he finally looked up at the evil presence that now had a shape and name "So what now? what do I do now that I know all this?" He was at a loss, even asking the demon itself what he should do, no boy should feel that lost in his existence. The fox however answered predictably.

**"Why not release me boy?" ** the fox grinned, **"Remove the seal and let me free to kill the villagers that have wronged you for so long!"**

Naruto thought for a moment before shaking his head "But I don't want them to die, and even if I did, I don't want you to attack and kill the people I care about, and since you're a demon I can't trust your word that you wont kill them."

The fox let loose a laugh louder than all the rest. **"HAHAHAHAHAHA, maybe you aren't so foolish after all puny human, yes, I admit it all, I would crush the bones of all your loved ones, suck out the marrow and blood from their bodies, and leave you a twisted lump of flesh to grovel at my feet, that and all of the above"** The fox licked its lips hungrily before letting that evil smile cross its face again.

An angry look crossed Naruto's face, the way he blatantly said he'd destroy everything he held dear was infuriating. "You bastard, the villagers were right, "YOU are a demon, I hope you rot in this cell for the rest of my life you fucking bastard." The foxes face screwed up slightly going from that deep smile to an odd frown.

**"Stupid boy, do you think this seal will hold me forever, simply by being here, talking with me already shows the seal is weakening, it is only a matter of time before I feast on your bones!"** The fox growled at him, but Naruto wasn't fazed as he stared the fox down and surprisingly the fox frowned and backed down a bit **"No matter, I am only telling you this now, because you will find out soon enough anyway, after you killed that villager, the other weaklings are taking advantage and surrounding your unconscious body. Now if it were up to me, I'd have just let them kill you, but seeing as my health is directly connected to you still breathing I'll give you my aid this once."** the red beast grunted once before it forced its crimson chakra through the gaps of the bars, surrounding Naruto in a vile cloak.

"What are you doing to me!" Naruto yelled.

**"Unless you wish to die from those pathetic villagers you'll let my power in, even if you don't believe me, I promise not to hurt you this once, I need you alive and blood pumping to eat you, I don't particularly like rotten meat!"** the fox grunted once again and Naruto felt reality tug him back.

With a shock his eyes opened wide, to see a dozen or more weapons coming down on him, With a rush of energy a dark red chakra rose up pushing the men away. Naruto stood up as the red chakra formed around him, "Get back you worthless bastards!" He yelled, raising his hands in an attempt to do as he did earlier with the ice powers, he felt the familiar biting wind and cold in his arms, before something else filled him, a deep foreboding, suddenly time seemed to stop. Naruto looked down at his arms, where what looked like green and blue energy were forming around his hands, they mixed with the red fox chakra forming dark violets and dark browns, before the three colors mixed together violently, in shock both naruto and Kuubi's voices said at once, naruto vocally, kyuubi subconsciously.

"Wh**at?"** before all sound disappeared in a flash of white light.

_**-Forest of death, an hour later-**_

Naruto awoke, yet again, in a place he didn't recognize

_'At least it isn't a sewer this time'_ Naruto thought dryly. He was laying in a meter deep crater where it appeared as though he had hit rather hard, he looked down at his tattered clothing, held together by the seams "Well there goes my wardrobe" he chuckled absently, shaking on his feet, whatever the hell had happened had drained him badly of chakra. Naruto looked around, he appeared to be in a forest of some kind, the trees above him were busted, showing he had crashed through from above, apparently whatever that light had been it had launched him far into the air. _'Then how am I alive?' _he wondered for a moment before he palmed his face _'Fox chakra, duh' _one of the few times from this point on he would admit the fox being sealed inside him was a good thing "Ok I'm not dead and I'm not hurt, now where the hell am I?" Naruto mused looking around the dense forest again, the meager light coming from the setting sun didn't give him much hope of finding his way and it would be dark soon, so he'd be even more screwed. His hopes for shelter were put on hold as a voice rang out answering his earlier question.

"You my dear dumbass are in my home sweet home, The Forest of Death." the voice seemed to be coming from all around him, to his surprise it sounded like a woman.

"Lovely name, let me guess? It's a forest and its filled with death?" Naruto replied sarcastically.

Not missing a beat the voice replied "How did you know? Maybe you aren't such a dumbass after all" the sarcasm was evident in her voice. Sure enough a woman appeared in front of him, leaning against a nearby tree. She had light purple hair done up in a fan style while her pale brown eyes added a nice contrast to the spiky bangs covering her face. Her clothing...was some of the sluttiest ninja gear he had ever seen, what was visible beneath the tan trench coat she wore was a skin tight mesh body suit that was cut off on the legs and arms half way out, on top of that she had a very short dark brown miniskirt that left little to the imagination there was also a fang necklace on her neck but other than that was just standard ninja gear on her legs and waist. "So dumbass what's a brat like you doing out here in my neck of the woods?"

"Where exactly IS here? Are we still in Konoha?"

"Yep, Gaki, this is one of our training grounds, number 44 to be exact, The Forest of Death!" Her attitude was bubbly to say the least, it definitely fit her wardrobe. "So I ask you again." Suddenly naruto was suspended upside down in the air by his legs, he looked up and saw a large snake coiled around the limbs "What are you doing here?" she finished with a glare, The blonde gulped noticeably at the large python constricting his legs.

"I don't know honestly, first I'm getting chased down by some people, next I'm cornered and attacked, then some wierd blue and green chakra surrounds me and some crazy ice forms, then some red chakra mixes with that and then everything went white and here I am..." Naruto blurted roughly though his explanation tactfully leaving out his knowledge of the fox. He didn't know the woman, she was clearly a Konoha nin judging by her headband, but he still didn't trust anyone but maybe old man hokage with the truth of his meeting with the fox.

Anko looked at the boy, his appearance showing her more skin than necessary with all the rips in his clothing and the several burns on the cloth. It was possible that the foxes chakra had taken over the boy and had caused the explosion, but what concerned Anko most was those other two chakra the boy spoke of _'Damn this isn't good, If what he says is true those people who cornered him are probably dead, not like they deserve any sympathy for attacking a child but damn this kid is out of luck if the council gets ahold of him, better take him to Sarutobi, he'll know what to do.'_ anko walked over to him "We're going to meet the Hokage gaki, try to cover yourself a bit wontcha?" she gave him a dirty little grin that made Naruto blush a little. before the both of them disappeared in a shushin.

_**-ooo-**_

In the office of Sarutobi Hiruzen aka the Sandaime Hokage, the old man was working on a stack of papers, his old age keeping him here late into the night with his duties to the village and its people. It was at this time that a swirl of leaves signaled a shushin into the thirds office, He looked up quickly to see Anko, behind her was Naruto hanging by his legs from one of Anko's snake familiars. He relaxed visibly when he realized who it was and leaned back into his chair "What can I do for you Anko? And why do you have Naruto tied up like that?"

"Well sir..." she glanced meaningfully at Naruto

"This has something to do with that explosion earlier doesn't it?" Anko nodded and the third sighed, "I'm assuming it was Naruto right?" The Third shot Naruto a serious look. Naruto gulped.

"Yes sir but I think it had to do with 'that' sir." Anko explained. The Thirds face became solemn as he pondered what to do next. What he wasn't prepared for was naruto somehow slipping out of Anko's grasp and confronting him.

"Jiji..." Naruto sighed as he sat down in the chair opposite of him, Naruto looked up and stared straight into Sarutobi's eyes, the dead look in Naruto's sky blue eyes made Sarutobi visibly flinch. "I know about Kyuubi old man, I met it tonight, and there are some things we need to talk about." Naruto's voice was dead serious, if it wasn't for the way he looked you'd forget you were talking to a 7 year old child. At the mention of the fox a shocked expression crossed the Thirds face, but he hid it quickly, after a second to recompose himself he coughed.

"Naruto, I want you to understand my reasons for hiding these things from you. First, the Yondaime Hokage, Minato, asked me to keep these things hidden from you that you could possibly have a normal life, I have watched over you with my crystal ball for the last 7 years, particularly this last month and I can see now that that isn't an option and for that I am sorry." the third looked silently at Naruto, the boy's face was a mixture of anger and hurt, the fact Sarutobi would hide something as important as that from him left a bad taste in his mouth. "Second" the third spoke up "Minato also asked me to tell you these things when you turned 16 or became a chuunin so that you'd be able to handle the stress those in your position have to handle daily, this too has become a moot point seeing as you already know, and from that look in your eyes I can also see you are not taking it very well..." The third took off his hat and placed it on the table "Did the fox say anything else?"

"I know who dad is..."

The Third sighed sadly "Then this becomes a bit easier to explain, at the very least I would have told you who he was anyway after I explained things better." The third trailed off for a few moments before he began again "Tell me Naruto what would you have done in the Yandaime's position if you were forced to make the choices he made?" Naruto looked at him strangely.

"Let me put that another way. Would you have put the burden that you now carry on the shoulders of someone else? Would you force that fate on someone else's child when you yourself were not willing to make that sacrifice?" Naruto face went pale as he thought about that, would he have done that, really? Sarutobi continued "That, Naruto, is what we Hokage must do. We make the hard choices. We send ninja out everyday to their deaths and when the time comes we ourselves must face down the biggest threats to the village. Even at the cost of our lives...do you understand?"

Naruto thought for a long time on the third words letting several minutes pass by, he answered honestly "Yeah old man I understand and no I would have taken the fox to my grave if I had to, but I still don't like it, I hate this, what I really am..."

"Then you understand more than I had hoped what my position is on this situation. You don't have to like it, but its the situation I was forced into to ensure that the village didn't tear itself apart over this. Most civilians don't know the fox was sealed within you, they just assume that since you were the only child born that day along with the whiskers on your face that you are the fox reincarnated in human form, it didn't help much that you were in my office when the council convened that night after the fox's defeat, the council assumed you were the monster sealed in human form or at the very least what most of the more intelligent ninja already knew, that you were a jinchuriki. Many of them called for your immediate death, but I did all I could to halt their intentions. Sadly the only thing I could do was put you in the orphanage and pass a law that made it illegal to speak of the fox to any of the newer generation, and for 7 years that law has held peoples hatred for you down under pain of death. But know this Naruto, I'm not a god, I can't devote all my time to watching you, and that mistake has lead us to this"

The third sighed and grabbed a single sheet of paper "Out of the ten people that confronted you, none of them lived, they were torn apart by whatever it was that you did. I don't hold it against you, in fact there is really nothing that can be done to you since you acted in self defense, but know now that your life is going to be much harder, already there are rumors of your involvement and the council will probably try to do everything in their power to limit, hinder or otherwise try and outright kill you to end the threat they feel you pose."

Naruto looked crestfallen, seeing how hard his life had been now, it would only get worse...he couldn't take it anymore, as hot tears fell down his cheeks, and soft whimpers echoed around the room.

Anko was looking at the boy sadly, feeling a very similar pain that he was feeling, "He's in the same boat as me" She thought quietly, ever since that bastard Orochimaru had abandoned her she had been ostracized by the village, only keeping her position and pedigree by hard work and menial labor since Orochimaru left the village, and she could only see herself in Naruto "Sir, if I may?" she asked at length

"Go ahead." he waved for her to speak, Naruto looked up at her two long streams of tears staining his cheeks.

"If things are going to get harder for Naruto, then he needs someone to take care of him, someone willing and able sir." Naruto just stared but the Third sighed his agreement.

"You are right Anko, but who here would take care of the boy? the council will ruin the reputation of anyone trying to help the boy and none of the other ninja besides Kakashi would take the boy in...And I for one don't think Kakashi would be the best choice to take care of a child..." the third trailed off leaving the idea hanging.

Anko snorted at that thought, Kakashi was good guy, but the man read so much porn and was tardy for every meeting he was ever called to, he'd be nothing but a bad influence on the boy. Not that her idea was much better but seeing the same look in the boy's eye that stared back at her every morning in the mirror just hit too close to home for her. "What about me sir?" Anko asked timidly, Naruto's head spun around so fast you'd think his neck snapped. he stared at her wide eyed, breath caught in his throat.

"You know my situation Sarutobi, me and him are in more or less the same boat, the council won't touch either of us due to our situation and its better to have someone to lean on then stand alone am I right?" Anko smiled sadly.

The third sighed. he was getting too old for this shit.

"I don't know if I can trust you with this one Anko this is a very serious..." The Third was about to continue when Anko cut him off

"Trust!" Anko shouted in outrage "Trust is something I've had to work tooth and nail to get after that snake bastard left the village, I have sweat blood and tears to get to where I am, who else than me to take care of the boy? Someone who has shared his pain and has come out of that darkness at least somewhat sane." she glared daggers at Sarutobi, who sighed again, he WAS getting to old for this shit.

"Very well Anko, I leave him in your...capable hands, But I have a few more things to say to Naruto"

"What is it Old man?" Naruto asked, his joy at finally having someone take care of him tempered by the serious way The Third addressed him.

"First of all, eye witnesses said that they saw several oddities about the chakra explosion that happened earlier, first that it wasn't just the foxes red chakra, but a green and blue chakra as well, can you tell me what you felt when these things were going on?"

"Well, all I know is that before the explosion those two odd color chakras made some weird kind of ice around me and protected me from the villagers, but other than that I don't know..."

"I see...Naruto come here for a moment" The third reached into his drawer and pulled out a stack of paper, he pulled one out and handed it to Naruto. "I assume you at least know how to channel chakra right Naruto? The orphanage said that you were able to copy the invisibility illusion, and I've seen you use it several times to escape from the villagers

"Yes sir" Naruto focused his chakra, it wasn't much but it was enough, the paper at first did nothing but then it seemed to split down the middle, before one of the corners of the paper became wet, Naruto dropped the paper in shock. "What happened?"

"It seems you may have tapped into a latent Kekkei Genkai, maybe something on your mothers side? Whatever it is we..." The Third was cut off by a gasp from Anko

"Sir!" she pointed to the paper on the floor, sure enough, on the floor the piece of chakra paper had split again, across the original cut creating four equal slices and oddly enough, each of the slices were doing something different; one was still soaking wet, one was burning to ash, another was crumpled into a little ball and the last was nothing but a pinch of dust on the floor.

"Kami..." Sarutobi was speechless.

"All elemental affinities!" Anko finished for him.

"What are you guys talking about?" Naruto asked, curious about their shocked expressions.

"Naruto do you know what this means?" Anko asked him, when he shook his head Sarutobi spoke up.

"This means something unprecedented, Naruto, having all elemental affinities is all but impossible, sure most people have one major affinity, most Jonnin after years of practice can have one or two minor affinities as well, but Naruto, not only do you have a MAJOR affinity with wind, shown by how the paper split not once but twice, but ALL FOUR other elements as major affinities, and those affinities are extremely powerful, I've never seen chakra paper affected so powerfully by an element. Naruto, the reason this is unprecedented is the fact the last person to have an affinity to all five elements was the Rikudou Sennin himself!" The third let that bit of information hang grimly in the air as the three of them stared blankly at what was left of the paper.

**-ooo-**

**A/N OK I know this premise is a bit cliche but I'm going with something cliche as my first long winded story, if anything just to give me room to work out some interesting things for the story, hope you guys enjoy it.**

**SO R&R so I know if anyone likes this or not.**


	2. Chapter 2

**OK HO-LY CRAP, :O The first chappie got funnily enough 555 hits in like 2 days, 32 faves and 19 alerts, DAYUM :O**

**Ok to answer the couple reviews I got.**

**zombiedeathdealer: No he doesn't have a Rinnegan. His new abilities are something like Aang from Avatar, he has the capability to master all of the elements, hence the title, the only thing I'm going to add onto that is the other elemental bloodline abilities, he may not have the bloodline to use those, like say, Lava or storm release or something like that but he can use his mastery over the main elements to replicate the bloodline and in time may develop the bloodline to pass onto his children. There are a few other things that have happened but that'll be explained (to a degree) in this chapter.**

**santmaster: Yeah I've seen stories like this peter out and die before they get anywhere, thankfully I'm interested enough and have things planned out till about the forest of death so with luck I'll make this a good one.**

**King-konoha: I don't usually bash in the things I write, there will probably be a few times where I'll have a bit of witty back and forth between some characters but nothing on a bash worthy scale, plus I'm the type who likes to redeem bad characters, but who knows I may bash Sasuke SOME but only a little and that'll probably get less and less as I try and make the guy a likable character. As for Sakura and Ino...I actually have three women decided and one as a possible fourth and neither of those two were in the list but I'm also willing to add more women to the harem if enough people want it. Within reason mind you, no more than 10 at most, I need to keep at least SOME of my sanity after all...**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters, If I did...well you REALLY don't want to know huehuehue.**

**now enjoy the damn fic 'fore I eat yo kidneh**

"speech"

_'Thoughts'_

**"Demon speech"**

_**'Demon thoughts'**_

Jutsu

_**Chapter 2 : Perfect for each other, maybe...**_

"But how...?" Naruto asked, shocked by what all this could mean.

The third looked pensive a moment stroking his beard in thought "Honestly I don't know" he said at length "I have a theory as to how that could happen but it's a bit out there."

"What do you mean?" Anko looked curiously at the third.

"Well, if my guess is correct, Naruto may have had, or may still have a Kekkei Genkai, one of the lost bloodlines of the land of mist, the land near whirlpool. The home country of the Uzumaki clan, which Naruto is descended from. As you know, wind and water are the affinities of Hyōton, or Ice release. What most people don't know is that the Tailed beasts all have chakra affinities as well, for instance, Kyuubi's affinity is fire, an extremely strong fire affinity, what I'm guessing here, and this is strictly guessing, is that when you subconsciously used the Hyōton bloodline, it mixed in all the wrong ways with the fire alined foxes chakra, causing a massive feedback into your chakra system, namely, the mixing of the fire and water affinities caused a imbalance and the wind chakra tossed fuel onto the flames so to speak, creating even more havoc in the boy's systems, but what I don't understand is why he now has 5 elemental affinities but I'm guessing it has something to do with the feedback...

The rest of the thirds words were cut off as Naruto felt himself being pulled inside himself, it was an odd feeling that left him in that familiar sewer that was apparently his mindscape.

Naruto sweatdropped "I seriously need to figure out a way to clear out my head, honestly if this is how a normal persons mind looks like I'd hate to see the inside of a pervs head"

**"That's not how a mindscape work's monkey..." **the very irritated voice of the fox echoed around him. **"A mindscape is based on a persons personality and experiences through life, seeing how bad you've been abused, your life has pretty much been in the shitter, your mind apparently took that literally..."**

"...I really didn't want to hear that coming from you..." the two flaming orbs of the fox stared blankly at him as his eye brow twitched in irritation.

The fox leaned back a little, relaxing as much as it seemed possible in that relatively small cage, **"Deal with it human, we have more serious things to discuss, I know you're talking about how you apparently obtained an affinity to all 5 elements, and I personally want to put my two cents into this conversation."**

Sarcasm filled the blondes voice "And how exactly are you going to do that fuzz ball? If you haven't noticed you're locked up in here and there's no way in hell I'm releasing the seal." he puffed up in front of the great demon, pointing an accusing finger at the beast.

the Kyuubi sweatdropped **"Well as much as I loath to admit it, you are right for once... However... I have an idea, it's not the preferred one seeing as I'd rather be released to cause mayhem and torment as is my namesake but you continue to be difficult..."**

"Well sorry if I actually care for things other than myself" He glared at the fox not budging an inch despite the fact the creature was a 100 times his size...

**"*Sigh*, I remember now why I don't try to reason and just eat you monkeys, you always give me a migraine." **the fox rubbed the bridge of its nose with its claws, which to Naruto looked rather hilarious and he tried hard not to laugh...and was failing miserably. **"Shut it human, I'm willing to help you here to further my goals, be glad I'm even lending you my aid, if events had been any different, I'd have left you to squirm without knowing anything, but seeing as you now have something this troublesome running through you, you need to be informed in case you accidentally kill yourself and me along with you." **The fox grumbled a few times angrily.

"W-What do you mean?" Naruto stuttered a little, his eyes shifted to concern in anticipation of what the fox would say.

**"You can preform handsign's, correct?** Naruto nodded, **"Good, I'm going to teach you a jutsu known as shadow clones, this is one part of what you need for me to help, and don't worry about the outside world, time flows differently here, minutes outside can last hours in here so you should have plenty of time to learn"** Naruto nodded again, looking at the Kyuubi's hands...claws and noticed they were in a seal **"See this seal here?"** Naruto nodded again. **"Now this isn't a very difficult jutsu, the only reason I know this particular jutsu is because it only requires one handsign and those bastard leaf shinobi used the thing countless times on me when I was destroying your villages...hehehe good times." **The fox chuckled darkly and Naruto turned a beet red at the beasts nonchalant attitude at murdering the people who would one day be his subjects...if he had a way to get the Kage hat **"Well boy, start practicing, contrary to popular belief I don't have an eternity to wait"** the fox broke him out of his thoughts and showed the boy the seal again, ** "Put as much chakra into the Jutsu as you can, we're going for replication, not fine tuning. So anything above 5 clones should be sufficient control for what I'm planning. Once you have that down I'll show you the next step..."**

_**-ooo-**_

Naruto blinked once coming back to reality to find the Third still talking. "Yo Old Man?" the third stopped for a moment to look at Naruto curiously. "Um I don't really know how to say this but...well...Kyuubi want's to talk to you."

...The third stared blankly at Naruto for a moment before shouting. "WHAT!" the Thirds eyes widened considerably, his mouth hanging open a little in disbelief.

"Um...yeah one second." the blonde sweatdropped and put his hand into a familiar seal with a slight twist as his hands flipped through 3 more seals after that "Hidden art: Kyuubi Kage Bunshin no Jutsu" with a small flash of red chakra the room was filled with a puff of smoke. When the smoke cleared the three looked around the room expectantly, the two adults in a bit of fear at what the fox might have made Naruto do... a slight cough brought them out of their searching, the three looked down only to sweatdrop, a little fox sat on the floor between Naruto's legs with a pissed off expression. **(A/N imagine a Fennec Fox, if you don't know what those are, look them up, they're cute, furry little fuckers)**

**"All my hate...all of it..."** the fox twitched in anger. **"You could at least learn better chakra control, that was pathetic"** it was odd looking to say the least that such a deep voice was coming out of something that small...

Naruto, the Third and Anko looked at each other for a moment, then immediately fell to the floor laughing.

**"I. Hate. All of you."**

The third was the first to come out of the laughing fit "Kyuubi is that really you? You're a bit smaller than I remember..." the third eyed the fox who now had a feral look to its face.

**"I'm not even going to answer that remark monkey, I came here to discuss the circumstances of the containers' chakra system." ** The third immediately sobered up.

"What do you mean? What has happened that I should be aware of?" the third's hands clenched in concern, if the fox was willing to speak to him in person...er... animal... then something terrible must have happened.

**"As you probably know the boy now has all the elemental affinities..."** The third nodded ** "Well then this shall be easy, what you don't know is that when my chakra mixed with the boy's Kekkei Genkai, it caused a chain reaction in his chakra network, causing a feedback that all but completely destroyed his chakra network, every one of his Tenketsu were vaporized." **At this all the human mouths in the room dropped **"Yes, I see you understand that little bit of information at least. Well moving on, I worked furiously on the boy, sending around 3 tails worth of chakra through his system all at once to repair what I could, now this is where it gets strange... you know basic chakra theory right mortal?" **It looked pointedly at the Third who nodded in response. **"Good, then you know how a beings elemental affinity is decided in the womb, where the parents DNA is used to determine the affinity. What happened here is extremely rare but with my tinkering in the boys chakra systems I came across the symptoms of 'Elemental Convergence', this is unheard of in humans, mainly because humans can rarely survive their Chakra system being vaporized. We Demons and those of the summon realm can survive to an extent, but this boy surviving is not only statistically impossible, but should be naturally impossible, no natural being should be able to channel all 5 elements effortlessly. The only reason the Rikkudou Sennin was able to do so was because of the Rinnegan, the eyes themselves were an unnatural occurrence that allowed the man to do so."**

"So what does this mean for Naruto here?" the third asked, genuinely curious now.

**"Heh, what it means, is that when I repaired the boy's chakra network, the other elemental affinities leeched into his system, as I said before a child's elemental affinity is decided in the womb, but unlike other sources of DNA, like the facial features of the parents and body types, the chakra network isn't set in stone, you can naturally change your elements to an extent with training, you can't effectively use all elements, but you could easily learn a few jutsu from affinities that you aren't alined to, but when you completely destroy a portion of the chakra network and it is repaired the elemental affinity that is present isn't there anymore, in effect you have an elemental neutrality, this draws in any elements around it, and unfortunately for the boy he landed in the Forest of death, where the elements have gone haywire for generations."**

"Wait what do you mean by that?" Anko interrupted. "I've lived there all my life, nothing really seems out of the ordinary there."

The fox sweatdropped **"Do you honestly think the flora and fauna there are natural? Everything in that place is either highly toxic or abnormally large, even in the ninja world that place isn't normal. **Anko made a slight 'o' face** "To be precise it is a 'Chaotic Zone', there are several of these places in the world that cause things like that to happen, sometimes whole nations are subject to a chaotic zone, such as demon country, or small pockets like the Forest of Death. **the fox took a moment to collect itself** "In short a chaotic zone is where the natural energies of the world are twisted and concentrated, that means all five elements highly concentrated in one place and that's what leads us to the boy here, after I repaired his chakra network his elementally neutral system drew in everything around it like a magnet, hell even I don't know to what extent the boy absorbed, he could have a hundred bloodlines for all I know now with how much chaotic energy is in that forest, I'm surprised he hasn't sprouted any fox features since my chakra was laced through his system when the absorption sta...actually, you might want to keep an eye on that, I'm willing to bet he'll start growing fox attributes soon, there's just no way he wouldn't, I was too close to his chakra system not to."**

"Great, the villagers hate me now without the fox features, how much more will they attack me when I'll look like you?" Naruto said bitterly

**"Don't blame me human, I'm not the one who cornered you in that alley, if you want to blame anyone, blame those fools that you turned to dust."**

"As much as I enjoy this conversation" the Third started dryly "What does this mean for Naruto in the long run and how will it affect him?"

The fox thought for a moment before replying **"Honestly? I have no idea, like I said before this is unheard of in humans, the only thing that I can think of that would hamper him is the piss poor control he has so far, I mean, I was supposed to be around the size of a large ninja dog, but no, I'm a Chihuahua..." ** the three humans in the room chuckled at that.** "...If anything you should consider this a blessing, this boy has more going for him now than most prodigy of prodigy's. All five elemental affinities means he has access to all spheres of elemental jutsu, and since four of the five are fairly equal with wind being the exception due to the boy's originally high wind affinity you can probably use many elemental bloodline abilities naturally now on top of the ice bloodline you already had, not to mention abilities you gained from absorbing any energies from me or the plants and animals around you, hell for all I know you could have the Sharingan by now, and if not now maybe develop it further on, you don't realize the scope of whats happened to you yet, if I wasn't so bitter towards your old man I'd actually complement you on the improvement."**

Naruto had something of a bitter smirk on his face when the explanation started, as the conversation went on it turned into a smile and just grew wider from there, "So you're saying I now have a better chance at being Hokage than ever before?"

**"Pfft Hokage?" **The fox chuckled **"If you aren't careful you could be the next Rikkudo Sennin for all I know."**

Naruto's grin took up his whole face. "HELL YEAH!" he hopped out of the chair he was sitting in and did a little happy dance, pumping his fists in the air.

Sarutobi took out his pipe and lit it, "I find it hard to believe that there are no side effects to this happening to the boy, are you sure that there isn't any adverse side affects other than the fox parts and possible new bloodlines? Something that might hurt the boy at any point?"

The fox glared at the old man with an irritated look on its face **"Human, I've said this before already, I DON'T KNOW, this rarely happens even for demons and it has never happened for humans as far back as I can remember, and I've lived longer than a hundred of your lifetimes, hell the odds of this happening ever is statistically zero, or at least it should be, I mean the things that would have to happen to even survive something like this are insane, first, a person would have to have a healing factor, with my chakra that's a given , but most humans in the world don't have that. Second, said human would have to have a bloodline, an elemental bloodline in particular, in this case, the boy's Hyōton bloodline. Third, you would need a foreign chakra that is the direct positive and negative reacting element to the two elements in the bloodline, in my case fire opposing the water and wind element, And Finally you would need a Chaotic zone close by when the feedback happened. All of this together is possible to do but even then the odds of the person actually surviving the event are again near zero, so you see I have no clue what will happen to the boy, Hell he could turn into a demon and sprout random animal parts and elements out of his body for all I know"** Naruto looked about ready to pass out at this information but before the sweet embrace of unconsciousness could take him the fox interrupted his freak out **"BUT in this case I CAN say that this is unlikely, for the most part the only time anything of that nature happens is due to the fact that demons and summons are physically, mentally and in some cases spiritually different from humans, and that's only in the worst cases that that has happened to someone, in your case human your body is much different than a demon or summons, your body is more rigid in its physical nature unlike us, on top of that, you have my demonic chakra on damage control. I can, to an extent, control what happens in your body through my chakra and considering both those things I can safely say you wont turn into a monster or anything of that nature."**

Naruto sighed in relief at this "So I just wait and see what happens then?"

**"Basically yes, other than that maybe try and work on all your elemental affinities and see what you can do with them all now, if you have the capability of multiple elemental bloodlines then its possible to unlock a few of these and other more physical bloodlines you may have obsorbed early to help you later in life"**

The Third listened to all of this quietly weighing his options in the matter, on the one hand the boys life was turned on its head, the civilians would soon be out for blood, if he was to have any sense of normality he needed an out, Anko was a good start, the woman shared the boy's lot in life, unable to do anything about their situation and ostracized for things outside of their control but the third knew that wouldn't stop the majority of the civilian council from calling for his blood and since the boy wasn't a ninja he couldn't protect the boy from them either, the only thing that could really save the boy is if he could somehow spin this new information about bloodlines to convince the council that the boy was worth the lives lost. Lord knows the civilians are bloodline hungry as it is, but that would just turn the boy into breeding stock, he'd need something more to keep that from happening... but what? The Third looked at Naruto silently watching him talk with Anko, the Kyuubi was sitting in the corner seemingly ignoring everyone when suddenly an idea came to him, it was a cruel idea, but it could prove to be beneficial to all parties involved.

"Naruto, Anko." the third spoke up gruffly, the two in question snapped to attention looking at the third expectantly. "I've thought over this matter and I have a few things I need to get out of the way. First off If you are going to stay with Anko there needs to be a legitimate reason, the civilian council will jump all over that and I wouldn't be able to do much about it." The room grew quiet, Naruto sat down a little somber at the thought of being back on the streets again.

"Couldn't I just adopt him?" Anko asked curiously "He'd be like a little brother" she shot the boy a grin.

"I...I've already tried that..." Sarutobi replied sadly "I'd have adopted the boy myself if that were the case" Naruto was shocked by the mans words, he never knew that the old man cared that much about him, but those words only cemented his respect for him even more. "Also, that's not the only problem related to the Civilian council." The third took a long drag on his pipe. "I know this might come as a shock but I don't think that that the civilian council will let the deaths of so many civilians just be ignored, they most likely will try to ask for your life Naruto" the grimness in the thirds tone sent chills up the blondes spine as he turned a pale shade of white. "However" He looked up quietly "I have an idea that might help." The Third sent a meaningful look at Anko, who like the blonde next to her paled drastically. "Naruto, Anko," The third sighed "My idea is for the two of you to be married..."

You could hear the pair of jaws hitting the floor at this point, while the Kyuubi was laughing its ass off in the corner.

"WHAT!" the blonde and the babe replied together.

"It's exactly as I said, now listen to my reasons before you say anything else" the third growled out, the two wisely shut their mouths before nodding "Naruto, the only thing that I can think of to get you out of this situation is to reveal what has happened to you to the council, if I can convince the council that you are much more valuable alive then dead then it just may be enough to save you, but to do that you'd need to provide something of value to the village, and in your case that is where your bloodline and or bloodlines will come into play." The Third turned to the fox in the corner "Kyuubi, what has happened to the boy can be inherited by his children correct?" the fox nodded. "Well, that is the basis for my idea, as long as you are alive your bloodline/s will keep the council off of you , as for you two being wed, there are several reasons for that. First" he held up a finger "It's to keep the council from whoring the boy off to half the women in the village when he comes of age, having a bride to be will keep most of them happy as long as you are married and have at least one child by the time you are sixteen, of course they may push for you to have multiple wives according to the Clan Restoration Act, Since you are technically the head of your clan, but that is entirely your decision as long as you have at least one wife and child." The third held up another finger "Second, this will also allow you and Anko to remain close to one another, allowing Anko to take care of you Naruto, this also means that you will always be under watch by an experienced ninja which will make your case alot easier when they demand someone keep an eye on you." Another finger went up "And finally Third, this applies to you Anko, it is to allow you to redeem yourself in eyes of the council, both ninja and civilian. Being married means that you are tied in a way to this village now, so the odds of you defecting are slightly lower in the eyes of your peers, you would be able to gain a certain amount of respect from both sides of the council not only for going through with this in the first place but if everything goes as planned then possibly redeeming yourself completely by following through with it as well." he let his words sink in for a moment before continuing "This whole idea is underhanded I know, it's also unfair to both of you in a way, but given what has happened and what will most likely happen this is the best course of action. Do you both understand?"

Anko was silent for a while as she mulled over the thirds plan. She could definitely benefit from this in a major way, ever since that snake bastard Orochimaru had abandoned her she had been the black sheep, a stain on the supposedly proud village of Konoha, hell her life sucked, everyone looked down on her and no one would give her the time of day. Hell this really was the ONLY option open to her at the moment that at least had some guarantee of redemption with a minimal amount of effort...and whose to say, they really weren't that far apart age wise, 9 years isn't THAT much, and that gap would mean less and less the older they got so age didn't really bother her, she had also seen the fourth Hokage in his prime, if this boy looked anything like him when he got older he'd be quite the looker, personality wise she could tell at least mentally the boy was older than he appeared, that came with the whole 'I have no family and I grew up on my own' mentality but if all else failed she'd have the rest of his young life to groom the boy in anything he currently lacked. So to cap off her mental checklist he had the looks, mentality, prestige, most likely ability given this new development in his powers and with that he'd also have the finances down after he grew up a bit and could take on missions, so really what problem did she have? ...Well, she could think of one...as she stole a glance at the boy's pants... _'No, Bad Anko'_ She mentally berated herself _'Orochimaru is the pedophile, not you.' _Though...that...didn't stop her from glancing at the boy's crotch again...if the gaki was packing heat when the time came for them to truly tie the knot she could say with certainty that he'd be one hell of a hubby.

Naruto on the other hand was completely blank, as soon as the third had finished speaking the hamster wheel stopped spinning and the gears locked up. _'I'm going to be married?' _he thought stupidly _'Is that what I want? Really?' _The boy was stumped, he had never thought about the future, the only real goal he had set for himself was getting the hat from the old man. Becoming Hokage really was his only dream, but what about a family? A wife? Those thoughts running through the boys head were confusing him to no end, hell a 7 year old wasn't meant to think about his future in that way, give him another eight to ten years and maybe he'd be ready for that responsibility, but no, he had to make the choice now. He knew that the third wouldn't force this on him, it was HIS choice after all but given the way things were it really was the only choice.

The third watched the two mentally go through all of what he had said and weigh their options, it was kind of cute how Naruto had such a serious expression on his face, given his age he couldn't hold a serious face without looking completely ridiculous and adorable at the same time but the third knew the boy was genuinely thinking things through...Just like his father, so considerate of others. It made the old man proud that Naruto had turned out so much like his father...though he did have a bit too much of his mother in him for his own good...and the safety and sanity of the village for that matter... He turned to Anko who had a more interesting expression, somewhere between apprehension and resigned acceptance. _'Well, at least she's considering it.'_ he thought. After a few moments he noticed both of them were staring right at him with resolve in both of their eyes. "Have you decided?" he asked at length.

Naruto was the first to speak "Yeah gramps" he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly "I'll go with it but only if An-chan want's to as well"

Anko's eyebrow and mouth twitched at the pet name as she dropped her head "Yeah" she sighed "I gotta say that this is one of the better things that's happened to me in my life, if what you say is true and I can actually get some recognition in my own damn village then yeah I'll go along with this"

"Good, that makes things infinitely easier..." the third sighed, rummaging through his desk the third pulled out several papers and placed them on the desk, "These papers here need to be signed to recognize that you both are indeed married, once signed you will need a ring made to seal the deal...actually, hold on a moment" the third dug deeper through his desk and pulled out a small shiny metal band with a little diamond in the center.

Anko frowned at the ring "Why the hell do you have one of those in your desk?"

The third sweatdropped "Well, I'm one of the few people in the village who does marriage services, aside from the fire monks and a few others in the village...though people tend to come to me when they need to keep an engagement or marriage secret, also the amount of people who elope in this village is just silly, I get a couple in here once ever other month or so, so I tend to keep at least a few of these things lying around just in case."

The couple to be stared blankly as the old man as he placed the band on the table next to the papers.

"Well Naruto will you do the honors?" The Third nodded towards the ring and gave the boy a pointed look.

Naruto nodded dumbly as he grabbed the ring, gulping hard the boy climbed up into the chair to be level with Anko, the boy gulped once before kneeling on one knee, Anko raised an eyebrow at this, if it wasn't for the fact that the person kneeling in front of her was a 7 year old, she'd have been flattered. As it stood though she was trying hard not to giggle at the ridiculous sight.

Naruto Gulped hard and tried asking the question "A...Anko-ch..chan" the boy stuttered "W...Will you m-m-marry me?" the boy had seen people do this before but doing it himself was an entirely different story, he felt weird doing it, uncomfortable even, like people were staring, though it was probably just Anko who looked to be on the verge of falling on her ass from laughter.

Anko looked at her future husband and chuckled mentally, _'The brats got guts I'll give him that' _she reached out her left hand "Sure brat, I'll marry you, but when the time comes I hope you can handle me" She winked at him with a devious little smirk.

Naruto nodded solemnly "I will Anko-chan, I'll take responsibility and take care of you when we get married." The boy didn't realize exactly what he had just said...or maybe he did and the adults in the room just took it the wrong way...yeah, that.

Anko couldn't take it anymore and fell to the floor laughing. The third had a perverted grin and a small trail of blood coming from his nose. Kyuubi...well he was asleep, but the wide grin on his face showed he was well aware of what his idiot container had just said.

"It wasn't that funny" he huffed

"Yeah it was gaki." Anko cackled from the floor, still laughing hard.

Naruto frowned, he didn't like being laughed at like that _'I'll show her' _he thought mischievously, a small devious grin spread across his face as the prankster in him welled up. Walking over to anko, he slipped the ring on her finger and in a bold move that shocked even Kyuubi of all things he leaned down and kissed Anko on the lips.

The third choked on his pipe, Kyuubi's ears shot up and his eyes flew open, Anko...well she was frozen _'That cheeky bastard' _she thought in shock.

With that devious smirk still on his lips he chuckled "Thank you Anko-chan I'll take _goood _care of you when we're married" ...apparently Naruto wasn't as dumb as he looked...

Anko and the third both turned bright red at the way the boy said 'good' and Kyuubi burst out laughing in the corner **"Hahahahah, If it's one thing I like about you boy, it's that devious nature of yours, got the blood of the kitsune in you no doubt about it"**

Naruto walked smugly back to his chair as he waited for the other humans in the room to compose themselves after that little stunt of his.

"Oi, you little brat!" the snake mistress fumed as she got up off the floor and approached the boy with a menacing gleam in her eyes, cracking her knuckles loudly.

The third turned away from the beating that was about to ensue and judging from the sounds coming from behind him he was wise to do so... The third turned back to see Naruto with a large anime style whelp on his head with a black eye to match. "Ahem... now that you've both kissed and made up" He chuckled when the two yelled at him for that cheeky remark "It's down to business, sign the forms here and make this marriage official" the third handed them a pen. Anko signed it first, she gave the pen to Naruto who looked at the paper warily "Is there something wrong Naruto?" the third asked, concerned at what was stopping the boy.

"Um...well"

"Yes?"

"I can't write..." the adults and fox in the room facevaulted.

The third picked himself up off the floor, "What do you mean you can't write? Didn't the caretakers in the orphanage teach you?" he raised one eyebrow when the boy looked down, ashamed.

"No...they didn't, they really didn't teach me anything, I had to teach myself..." at this both eyebrows rose, the boy had taught himself everything he knew, that alone filled the old man with anger, he would have a long talk with the orphanage staff after this was all over and done with...and by talk he meant torture and interrogation.

"Naruto, Just sign with an X and stamp your thumb print in blood that will be more than enough written proof. Naruto nodded, used the pen to cross an X next to Anko's name, then used a Kunai letter opener to slice his thumb open, he dipped the other thumb in the small pool of blood just enough to coat and pushed it onto the paper, leaving a thumbprint slightly smudged but clear enough to show a majority of the boys fingerprint. The third looked over the paper for a moment before signing it himself as a witness "Well then, by the power vested in me by the fire daimyō, the head monk of the fire temple and the good people of Konoha, I now pronounce you husband and wife, you may kiss the bride." he motioned his hand suggestively with a grin on his face.

Anko looked at Naruto who looked back at her _'Well he's already kissed me once' _she rolled her eyes and leaned towards him. Naruto pulled himself together and leaned in as well, for a moment their lips met, surprisingly it was a rather long kiss. Naruto broke the kiss, pulling back you could see he had a slight blush on his face, Anko was in a similar state _'He's actually a good kisser' _she giggled to herself _ 'I can't wait to see what he's like when he's older.'_

"Well then" the third coughed a similar blush on his face and a tissue in his nose, "I think it's time we break the news to the council, I'll call an emergency meeting now, you two wait here and get to know each other while I take care of things." The third stood up before walking out to his secretary, _'Tonights going to be a long night.'_

**-ooo-**

**A/N Well that's that, got nothing to say for now, till next time.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello again all, hope you are enjoying the story and quick updates cuz this chapter just didn't want to write itself, for some reason I can never write a decent council, its usually just Sarutobi telling them to stfu and listen as he explains shit, but I guess that's a decent change of pace compared to all the spineless sarutobi council meetings so whatever.**

**OK LETS ANSWER SOME REVIEWS!  
**

lightningblade49: **Oh chibi Kyuubi will be making more appearances, just wait till Hinata sees the fox huehuehuehuehue.**

Jaki Stratos:**Eh not really a parent, more of a mental companion that'll give him tips and mess with his head along the way.  
**

megatyrant: **Thanks and you're right I've seen quite a few eye bleeders in my time here on FF.****  
**

**Disclaimer: As always don't own Naruto, If I did, Naruto would have already just killed everything that opposed him and created a harem world for his amusement...**

"speech"

_'Thoughts'_

**"Demon speech"**

_**'Demon thoughts'**_

Jutsu

**-ooo-**

_**Chapter 3: Screwing the Council!**_

After an hour of waiting in the thirds office, the third walked back inside to talk to the newly married couple, only to find them both sound asleep, Anko leaning back in the chair Naruto had been sitting in with Naruto comfortably curled up like a...fox...in her lap. "Naruto, Anko." the Third spoke up, waking the two from their nap. Naruto fell off Anko with a curse, hitting the floor with a thump when she jumped out of her seat. Anko looked around quickly for a moment before she smiled sheepishly when she noticed the third looking at her with an eyebrow raised, _ 'Perhaps I don't have to worry too much about them rubbing off on each other after all' _the third chuckled to himself, amused at the pairs' almost immediate bonding, if it was one thing that brought people together it was a shared loneliness that they could relate to. "Are you alright Naruto?" the third asked the boy, who was picking up what was left of his dignity after being unceremoniously dumped on the floor.

"Yeah Jiji I'm alright" the boy turned to say something to him when the third gasped.

"Naruto!"

"W-What?" the boy jumped back, startled by the thirds raised voice.

"Your...eyes" the third pointed to a small mirror on the wall, the boy turned and nearly jumped out of his skin, his pupils were thin, his eyes were still sky blue but his once round pupils were nothing but slits now.

**"I told you you'd most likely start showing fox attributes, I'd keep an eye out for your tail and ears next"** Kyuubi spoke up from the corner.

"I didn't think it would start happening RIGHT NOW" the boy groaned, his transformation was already starting and it could only cause him more grief once the council saw him.

"Come on Naruto, Anko, we can worry about Naruto's fox parts later, the council is waiting for us" The third led the pair to the council room, once there he opened the door and motioned for the two to enter. "It's good to see you all are here council members" The third greeted them all.

"Get to the point Sarutobi" A middle aged merchant spoke up "We all know this has to do with the little brat over there so what is it?"

"Now now Kurokara-san, I think there's alot more to this than that." the voice belonged to an elderly man who ran the local cloth shops around Konoha, he was also one of the more level headed of the civilian council. Kurokara glared at the old man for a moment before sighing "Go ahead then Hokage"

"Very well" the aged kage nodded. "The fact of the matter is that this meeting is, to an extent, about the young Uzumaki over there" he motioned to the boy in the corner of the room. "Roughly three to four hours ago Naruto here was cornered by a mob of civilian villagers who, by witness accounts tried to take the boy's life." there were several murmur's among the men and women at the table at this. "I am sad to announce that those individuals are no longer among the living" there were cries of outrage at this.

"Did the boy kill them?" a curious voice asked, everyone turned to the speaker, the pale eyed head of the Hyuuga clan, Hiashi Hyuuga.

"Yes." the third stated quickly, but before the rising voices could get louder. "However!" He said with a harsh tone and the council wisely quieted "The boy had reason to defend himself in this case, and while it still stands that he has killed I believe a far more interesting event has occurred from this incident, namely the means by which young Naruto here killed those men" There was whispering through he room before the Hokage continued. "Due to the stress the boy was placed under, he...inadvertently accessed his bloodline" voices were raised but again the third quieted them. "I am not finished, as I was saying, the boy here unlocked his bloodline, which if any of you are wondering is hyōton, Ice Release but that isn't all, again due to the stress the boy was under, it just so happens that the boy unknowingly tapped a bit of the Kyuubi's chakra." he took a moment to let that sink in "The boy is fully aware of what is inside of him as he tapped into the foxes chakra at the same time as his Hyōton bloodline was active, but for reasons currently unknown the chakra mixed in a negative way creating a feedback which caused that explosion earlier today."

"What does this mean Hokage-sama?" a bored voice asked from the back, the voice belonged to the head of the Nara clan, Shikaku Nara.

"Well, I can't really explain without showing you, Naruto, come here a moment please" he waved the boy forward, as Naruto got closer he noticed a few looks of shock as they noticed his slitted eyes and all but destroyed clothes but he ignored the glares they shot him and approached the third. "Here, channel chakra like you did before" as he handed Naruto another piece of chakra paper. Naruto held the paper over the council table and like before the paper split into four equal pieces, each being affected by a different element. Immediately shouting rang out.

"What is the meaning of this?" an elderly voice asked, raising his voice to be heard over the others and yet still sounding calm and collected.

_'Danzo...ever a pain in my ass.' _The third thought quietly before raising his voice, "As you can see gentlemen, the boy not only has an elemental affinity to Wind and water, the pair of elements that make up Hyōton, but the other three elements as well. As for the meaning, well, that is the strange part, due to the boys 'accident' as we'll call it, the clashing chakra in the boys system, rebounded and struck his chakra network, instantly vaporizing a good portion of it in the explosion."

"Impossible" Hisashi interrupted "No human can survive their network being damaged that badly." he should know, the Hyuuga were experts on fucking with the chakra network to kill people.

"Exactly Hiashi-sama, No Human. This boy while he is indeed human, has a body that does not follow the same rules in regards to healing, I will admit this now but both I and Naruto here have had a lengthy discussion with Kyuubi himself on this matter earlier."

A small yip from behind the third drew everyone's attention, the third moved out of the way to reveal Kyuubi in all his short fuzzy glory.** "Sup humans?"** the fox hailed them.

Shouts of 'The demon's escaped!' and 'Monster!' among other things rang out in the chamber.

**"Well fuck you too."** The fox huffed and walked over to Naruto to collapse in a poofy ball at his feet

The third sighed and waved a dismissive hand at the council "Do not worry, the seal still holds. That form the fox is taking is just a bunshin body the it uses to communicate." The council whispered a moment over the fox until the Third coughed to get their attention again "From what the fox explained to me, what has happened to Naruto here is what's known to demon and summon kind as 'Elemental Convergence' strictly speaking the converging of elements on a elementally neutral chakra network. During the time while Kyuubi was healing Naruto here the boy was able to draw in large amounts of elemental chakra from his surroundings, which just happened to be the Forest of Death of all places."

Many in the room paled at the mention of the forest, even the experienced Jonin in the room were uncomfortable with the place. "As you all know the Forest of death is anything but normal, so anything the boy absorbed was most likely amplified by his chaotic surroundings which leads us to the boys current condition, as it stands the Kyuubi has told me that the boy at the very least now has access to every one of the base elements, with the possibility of the boy forming multiple elemental bloodlines likely. So any ideas you may have had of getting rid of the boy now would be nothing short of idiotic" The third glared at a few of the civilian council who had been giving the boy and by extension the fox at his feet an evil look for awhile now.

"If that is the case Sarutobi then why do we not have the boy produce offspring that would take full advantage of his possible bloodlines?" Danzo asked curiously.

"That, Danzo, has already been taken care of" the third glared at the man, how dare he even suggest doing that to a child, it was disgusting. "Anko." Sarutobi motioned for her to approach. "You all know Anko Mitarashi here, correct?" many at the table nodded though not many hid their open distaste for the woman. "Anko here is the one who found the boy and brought him to me, after a brief discussion on the matter which I personally brought up she has offered to take care of the boy..." Several voices of dissent were clear. "Silence! I am not finished." he roared "Anko agreed to take care of the boy, but that alone would not allow her to do so since he is legally an adult...as many of you on the council are aware" He gave each of them heated looks. He had made Naruto an adult only a week earlier to try and protect him when he had learned the orphanage had kicked the boy out. He couldn't take care of him himself due to the councils meddling but the third had bought and was sustaining a small apartment for the child and since he was an adult he could legally have his name on the deed. Had he known where the boy was he would have immediately taken him there, but Naruto had a bad habit of hiding from people...given his life though that's to be expected. If only he wasn't so damn GOOD at hiding...it had gotten to a point where even his crystal ball could not find him at times.

The third sighed, this wasn't going to be taken very well.

"Since the boy is legally an adult, clanhead and last of his clan, he has made it clear to me that he did not want to be subject to the Clan Restoration Act without his say in who he takes as a wife, I discussed his options with him and we came to an agreement. As of this moment Anko Mitarashi is now Anko Uzumaki, the two of them are husband and wife." ...To the thirds surprise there was complete and utter silence, he looked at the council members in the room. There was shock, horror and rage to name a few of the emotions on the faces of his council. Before any could speak the third continued "Both of them agreed to this, I have the documentation showing as such and if you want a second opinion I'm more than willing to let Inoichi-san look through my memories to show that both signed the document of their own free will. Also, Naruto has made it clear that since he is now married he is no longer subject to a council ordered marriage or conception of a child so long as he is married and has at least one child by the age of sixteen. Any other women he takes as a wife under the C.R.A. is entirely his choice. Do I make myself clear?" The thirds voice may have been controlled and even but the threat was as clear as day to everyone in the room.

Many of the civilian council who would have pressed for the boys death, expulsion or forced a marriage given his new possible bloodlines nodded in agreement, after all what could they do? The boy had clearly acted in self defense when that mob attacked him and even if they could press the issue they wouldn't, not with the potential for a whole new string of bloodlines that could come from the boy. To them he was now even more of a necessary evil.

Danzo on the other hand was sitting quietly to the side of things, on the outside he was as calm and collected as ever but on the inside he was seething, _'Well played Sarutobi, well played. You knew I would make a pass at the child, as I've pushed to weaponize him on several occasions, but this? I never expected you to convince a child to do something as foolish as this...foolish, but given the circumstances genius as well'_ Danzo sighed before glaring at the third and ever so slightly nodding his agreement, thinking to himself _'I know when I've been outplayed Sarutobi, I'll back off...for now'_

The third noticed Danzo's reaction and let out a mental sigh of relief _'Danzo's backing down, good, that means I've won this round, none of the others would dare try anything if Danzo is staying out of it.'_ The third looked at the rest of the council, sure enough none of them seemed keen on arguing. "If there is anything else any of you would like to add please do so." the room was silent for almost a minute before the third sighed "Very well, this meeting is adjourned, dismissed." The council rose at the thirds words and walked silently out of the room, thinking about what they had just heard.

**"That was fun"** the fox yawned **"Well this body is almost out of chakra, later monkeys"** a puff of smoke signified it's departure.

The third watched the fox go "Naruto" he spoke up startling the boy from his thoughts.

"Y-yes jiji?" Naruto fidgeted slightly, his nerves were shot to hell watching the council debate his fate, he couldn't describe the feeling when he realized he wouldn't end up a test subject or a breeding factory.

"I hope that you are happy with what has happened" he said at length, his voice quivering slightly in sadness "I know I can never apologize enough for not being able to take care of you, had I the chance I'd have adopted you immediately, but sadly I was never able to convince the council of my intentions, they saw you as a threat, and in my weakness I never confronted that decision and for that I am deeply sorry."

"It's ok old man, I may have been alone but i never really felt alone when I knew you cared about me, that and the Ichiraku's were a big help too" The boy let out an ear to ear smile.

"I bet they were" The third chuckled.

"Don't worry so much" the boy sighed, "I have people who care about me and that's all I could ever really ask for in life...and besides, I'm technically not alone anymore, am I An-chan?" the boy sent a sly smirk at Anko, who was a few feet away.

The girl in question blushed slightly _'Ooooo that little bastard' _She thought in embarrassment _'I'm sooo getting him back for that.'_

"Yes I do believe you're right Naruto" The third laughed. "Though even if you have found someone to stay with, you'll need some decent clothes, after all, we can't have you walking around a beautiful lady in nothing but torn rags." The third nodded to the boys clothing which had all but been forgotten. "Anko can take you to the Wolf Claw weapon shop tomorrow, an old friend of mine is the owner, I'll have him put it on my tab."

"T-Thanks Old man!" Naruto hugged him tightly.

"No problem Naruto" he chuckled, hugging the boy back, "I think it's time for both of you to head home. Anko?"

Anko walked up behind Naruto and placed a hand on his shoulder "Yes sir. Come Gaki! It's nappy time and I need my beauty sleep."

Naruto snorted at that before the two of them disappeared in a shunshin.

The third sat in the council chambers for several moments wondering just what the future held for Naruto, before he too disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

_**-ooo-**_

"Gah I'll never get used to that" Naruto choked, when the two appeared on the edge of a fenced in forest.

"You just need to build up your strength, your body can't handle the changes in speed yet, that comes with growing up and getting stronger." Anko rubbed her hand through his hair ruffling the blonde mop and making it spikier than ever.

"Where are we anyway?" Naruto looked around at the forest curiously.

Anko smirked "Back at the forest of death."

Naruto looked confused "What the hell are we doing here for?"

"Well considering I live here..." She trailed off a grin plastered on her face.

Naruto's eyes went wide "WAIT, you LIVE here!"

"Guilty." raising her hand up in front of her in a joking gesture.

"Ugh, any other surprises I should know about?" he raised his brow questioningly.

"Well..." she trailed off "I have a fetish for blood, my favorite color is purple, my favorite food is dango...you take my dango you die, and I have a tattoo of a python on my ass..." She ticked each thing off on her fingers.

Naruto slapped a hand to his face and groaned. "I didn't mean that literally..."

"I'm a very blunt person." she smirked.

"I can see that..." Naruto deadpanned. He sighed "Fine let's just get to wherever in this crazy forest we're going "

"Okie dokie." she picked the boy up and chucked him over her shoulder, with a leap at break neck speeds she jumped into the woods...with him screaming bloody murder all the way

An hour later (roughly ten of that prying Naruto's fingers from her arm) they were standing in front of the tower in the center of the forest.

"Home sweet home." Anko nodded proudly...as a flash of lightning and evil laughter came from nowhere...

"What the fuck was that!" Naruto yelled.

"Oh you know just the natural ambiance." she smiled evily.

"Wonderful..." he sighed entering the building, as he entered he noticed that the place on the inside, for the lack of a better term...was FUCKING HUGE! "Wow..." He took off running, passing by at least a dozen doors before he made it to the arena area that was used for the chunin exams "This place is awesome!" he yelled out.

"Heh I knew you'd like it, it's pretty big, so you really don't have to worry about anybody invading your privacy here, that is until the chuunin exams and this place is filled with chuunin wannabes for a few days, but that's why my room is at the top of the tower, no one really bothers with going that far up just to find a room to stay when there are so many on the ground floor." she grabbed his hand and took him on a tour of the place, pointing out the large cafeteria and all the bathrooms in the building, the showering area was large too, looking like a gym shower but that was to be expected in a place like this. Level by level they went up until they were near the roof of the building "Here's our room." she smirked, pointing to a large wooden door covered in seals.

"Any reason why that door is booby trapped to all hell?" Naruto asked sarcastically.

"I like my privacy during the chunin exams." Was all she said before walking to the door and channeling chakra into the seal in the middle, instantly a distinct click was heard and the door swung inward. "Welcome, to the birds eye view suite." she laughed waving her arms in a overly dramatic way. "It's one of the two ways to the roof of the tower, and this one has a personal balcony to look over the forest with. And yes, I booby trapped the balcony too."

Naruto sweatdropped "Paranoid much?"

Anko ignored that "Well since it's already well past the ass crack of midnight, I think it's time to sleep. I'll finally have a use for that other bed now..."She trailed off for a moment before noticing Naruto's state of clothing "Ah, I forgot about that, strip real quick I'll get you something to wear." as she walked to her wardrobe back turned to Naruto, who rather reluctantly stripped down to his underwear in front of his 'bride'

_'Kami this is awkward' _The boy thought to himself

"Ah here we are" she pulled out an old long grey T-shirt and tossed it to the embarrassed boy, who put it on quickly, only to find the thing was many, many sizes to big for him, hell it looked like a full length dress on him. "Well, thats irritating."

"Don't worry about it, do you have a kunai, some rope and a needle & thread?" Anko nodded and brought him the things he needed. Naruto immediately got to work, taking the shirt off he cut the thing at about the midway point, after that he took the bottom part and cut the lower two thirds in a V shape, taking the needle and thread he began sewing either side of the V, the speed at which he was doing this caused Anko's eyebrow to raise.

"You're pretty good at sewing Gaki."

Not stopping, Naruto grunted "Well you tend to learn things that make life easier when no one'll help you." There was clearly pain in his voice, he had only been out on the streets for about a month before all this shit happened but really the streets were a better place than that orphanage ever was, at least on the streets there are plenty of places to hide from the people after you...not like that helped much really.

Anko frowned. "Look kid, I don't pretend to know what your life was like, I _lived_ it. You don't have to keep up this mask of indifference around me, I won't turn a blind eye to you just because you have some giant firball inside you and to be honest you're not the only one having to bear a seal and bad memories."

Naruto jerked his head towards her. Anko nodded and pulled her coat off of her neck revealing a small black tattoo on her shoulder. "The curse mark" she said slowly. "A seal developed by my previous master Orochimaru, he gave this to me when he defected the village, as a 'memento' of our relationship. it gives him power over me, to cause me pain whenever he wants and the thing throbs constantly, I'm lucky most of its potency is sealed away by another seal but that doesn't stop it from hurting me, or from other people thinking I'll turn on them at any moment, controlled by some snake bastard."

Naruto's face was blank for a moment as he looked at Anko's face, there was genuine sadness there and a bitterness he'd only ever seen in himself. Naruto sighed, it was times like these that made him feel older than he was. A 7 year old acting like someone triple his age. He dropped what he was working on and walked over to Anko, without saying a word he pulled her into a hug.

Anko's eyes widened a little, after a few moments a small smile crossed her face as she hugged him back "It's pretty sad when a woman gets comforted by a child, or for that same child yo be the one who understands her pain the most." she chuckled bitterly

"I know An-chan, I know how it feels...to be alone. But we aren't alone anymore are we?"

"Heh, I guess not." she smirked as she tussled his hair again. They sat there for what seemed like hours together just holding each other, letting the others feelings show through, if only a little bit. Finally they separated, knowing that truly they were no longer alone...

Naruto turned back to the cloth he was working on putting the finishing touches to it. When he held them up to anko she snorted in amusement, he had turned the cut off bottom of the shirt into a baggy pair of pants complete with a rope belt, the top half of the shirt he sowed along the bottom to make a clean edge. All in all it turned out to be a nice set of clothes for him, at least until he could buy some ninja clothing.

"Not bad, not bad at all." she appraised him

"Like I said, knowing how to make things in life easier is a damn good skill" he flashed her a wide smile which she laughed at before they both went to bed for the night, knowing that tomorrow would be a new day...for the both of them.

_**MEANWHILE IN AN UNDISCLOSED LOCATION!**_

A pissed off Danzo brooded...and brooded...

"You will rue the day you crossed me Hiruzen!" Danzo yelled out to no one in particular...

...

...

"RUE IT!"

And back to Brooding the Uchiha 'wannabe' went, the stolen sharingan eye behind his bandages spinning fiercely. "But first, I must try that new flavor of pocky I've heard so much about!" again yelling at no one.

**('Maybe calling him a Uchiha 'Wannabe' was being a bit modest...')** thought our lovable author as he contemplated seppuku via ball point sharpie

**-ooo-**

**A/N : This was a sappy chapter I think, (cept for that slight soda induced crazy a second ago) and one of my first really since I normally write comedic stuff. meh, this isn't going to be a pity party I know, there's a freaking harem in this for a reason dammit, Naruto needs some medicinal lovin stat!**

**..er wait, he's only 7 atm...um medicinal lovin stat! in the next 5-6 years...ONWARD FOR GREAT JUSTICE!**


	4. Chapter 4

**HO-HO-HOLY SHIT. talk about felling the love here, so many positive reviews, almost 84 faves and 64 alerts, also 2 more C2's , OK Answer some reviews time**

Wanna-be-player:** Ah my first anon reviewer. Well I'm not sure on any other older women, Tayuya is a probably, Kushina is a no, I read cest stuff but writing it just makes me uncomfortable, I MIGHT write cest stuff but not in this story, as for FemKyuubi that's a no as well, I'm not sure what I'm going to do with Kyuubi at the moment, but the fox is not going to be a love interest, if anything it's going to be the sarcastic comic relief/deus ex machina when and if I need it, HOWEVER, the rules are always subject to change, I like to keep my bases open when I'm writing something like this. If theres a good spot to introduce a character as a possible love interest and I'm feeling the love I'll consider it.**

Leave-the-village:** Ah yes another anon reviewer, that was for chapter two but I'll answer it anyway. WHY IN THE BLOODY HELL WOULD HE LEAVE? lets take five minutes to think on this. He's been out on the street for only 1 month, not half his life. There are fics where Naruto has been BADLY abused, this story isn't one of them. Sure he was ostracized and maybe a few cases of violence, but the first chapter was his first time in a life or death situation, not the tenth, not the 200th, the first. And that time was because it was a drunk mob rather than an angry couple of villagers, also, he outright vaporized that mob, so any pain or fear they caused him was returned 100 fold. As for reasons for staying er duhhhh he just got a massive boost in power and is in a very good position to get the recognition he wants. Hell he even got a wife/mother/teacher figure out of all this. Why would he leave when things are starting to look up for him? It's a case of leaving and starting out at the middle/neutral and working slowly up or staying and starting out at the bottom with a rocket strapped to your back pointed to the top.**

Tamult:** I actually answered some of your review in the anon one above lol, Personally in the real manga he's never abused, just ostracized, with my story it's just slightly more heavyhanded with a couple people here and there being physical, like what COULD happen in the real story, and the mob was drunk and likely ALL fox haters so it's easy for a mob mentality to get out of hand, thus what happened in this story. As for Sarutobi, I really like him as a character, he had alot of development in the story before he died, and even after that when people talked about him he still seemed like that pillar of strength that has been worn away over time, all it really takes is something to patch up those weak spots, and that something in this story is that mob attacking Naruto, its a wake up call and it's making him take a heavier hand in handling Naruto's well being. As for Anko...heh Anko will always be Anko, she's like Naruto but with tits. Yeah I kinda assumed her age since I remember there being a flashback of Orochimaru and Anko standing together and Anko looked to be about errr 8-9, I'm pretty sure orochimaru left not long after the fourth became Hokage so 7 years of Naruto's life plus one or two for the fourths reign then add 8-9, so 16-18 years old. I just chose the lowest age because that makes me feel less like a pedo pairing them together XD. **

**...Reading some of the other comments...I'm really feeling the love on more people added to the harem... ALRIGHT THEN, more women it is.**

**As always, don't own Naruto, if I did Naruto really would have fox parts, and every girl in the village would be trying to rape him.**

"speech"

_'Thoughts'_

**"Demon speech"**

_**'Demon thoughts'**_

Jutsu

**-ooo-**

_**Chapter 4: Shopping with the snake mistress.**_

Naruto awoke to a peaceful morning in the forest of death, the sounds of birds chirping could be heard all around the tower. Yawning to himself, Naruto dragged his ass out of bed scratching said ass as he made his way to the bathroom. He opened the door with his foot as he yawned again, not even paying attention to his surroundings as he made his way to the toilet. Once there he was preparing to take care of business when a cough interrupted him, he turned towards the sound tiredly not expecting a naked Anko to be standing 5 feet from him with a towel draped over her shoulder. Naruto stared for a moment, too tired to understand the world of shit he was in right now, then slowly his eyes widened as it dawned on him that he was about to take a piss in front of a FULLY NUDE Anko and she was giving him a look that spelled certain death...

"Um...sorry?" he began. Anko shook her head no. "Um...owwie?" she nodded "eeep" he squeaked as the sound of a fist connecting with a overly hard head echoed through the tower.

"What have we learned?" Anko asked rubbing her hurting fist...what? The brat had a hard head.

Naruto wept anime tears as a large whelp rose on his head "Knock first before entering?"

"Eh, close enough." she shrugged, still not covered in the least which Naruto noticed.

"Um, if the purpose of hitting me was to punish me for seeing you naked...WHY are you STILL naked?"

Anko deadpanned. "3 reasons: 1. I'm not the most modest of people, you only have to look as far as my clothing to see that. 2. We're married so this really shouldn't surprise you, if it does, use this chance to get used to it." As she opened the shower curtain to the bath showing a tub large enough for the both of them to bathe together. "And 3. I didn't hit you because you caught me naked, I hit you because you just walked in without making sure I wasn't in here and also because you were staring at my tits the entire time."

Naruto blushed, he had been staring a bit south of her face since he walked in, it's not like he could help it though, he was still a guy after all, and not only that it was the first time he had seen a womans bare breasts before.

"Are you getting in or what?" Anko asked as she leaned back in the tub.

"Uh, yeah..." He turned back to the toilet and finished peeing trying to ignore Anko staring at him intently.

_'Hmm big for his age, good' _she silently appraised him _'...maybe he could...NO BAD ANKO, NO PEDO THOUGHTS!'_ she mentally slapped herself as Naruto sunk into the water with her, blushing madly as he sat in front of her.

"I'll wash your back for you" she smiled lathering up a bar of soap and scrubbing the boy down, his skin was smooth to the touch, not a mark or blemish on him but that probably had more to do with the fox than anything the boy did. As she was beginning to lather up some shampoo she noticed a pair of odd pointy things sticking out of the boys head, reaching out she grabbed a hold of them and immediately Naruto melted in her grasp. She blinked a couple of times then looked over naruto's shoulder at his face and noticed his face was bright red, flushed and was really, REALLY relaxed. She looked at the points on Naruto's head for a few seconds then started massaging the tufts of hair lightly making the boy shiver in her grasp. A wide grin escaped her as she continued her massage "So cute!" she giggled, "The fir ball was right you already have fox ears coming in, I'd say a few more days and you'll have a full grown set to charm the ladies with."

"Oh joy..." he said sarcastically, shivering some more as she hadn't stopped stroking his ears. Kami were they sensitive.

"Oh don't be like that, if you're so worried about someone seeing them I'll teach you the henge jutsu to hide what you look like until we can get you a hat to cover them, and if your tail ever comes in we can figure something out as well." she poked the back of his head hard for a few seconds to get her 'point' across.

Naruto sighed "Alright" as they both enjoyed the bath.

_**In the Hokage's office.**_

We find Sarutobi passed out in a pool of his own blood, the red fluid pouring heavily from his nose.

_'Note to self, DO NOT check on Naruto with the crystal ball in the morning...not good for my health.' _The third thought before darkness took him.

_**-ooo-**_

Back with our odd couple we find them walking down the main streets of Konoha with the aroma of the market district filling the air. Anko was dressed in her usual while Naruto beside her was in his makeshift clothing with a loose grey hat on that he had thrown together from a belt and some old cloth, honestly it looked like a cross between a chefs hat and a beret to him but Anko thought it looked stylish with the rest of the clothes so he begrudgingly wore the thing rather than try and fool a village full of ninja with a half-assed henge.

Anko looked down at her young husband and noticed his rigid posture "Don't be so tense kid, as long as you keep that hat on and don't look anyone in the eyes they won't know the difference, and if someone starts shit I'm here with you."

"Some comfort at least" the boy retorted.

Anko sighed, the kid was being difficult again, it wasn't that he didn't understand that they could count on each other now, it was the fact that the constant glares the villagers were throwing him were breaking the boy's resolve. Every other villager they passed gave the boy at the very least a look of disgust or anger, hell she NEVER had it this bad, no wonder the kid was so depressed. "At least I can discourage a few of the glares now" She sighed again, tossing out a small bit of killing intent at a few civilians that were giving him dirty looks, more than a few paled and turned away which for some odd reason gave her a sick sense of satisfaction, _'Is it because I'm protecting Naruto?'_ she wondered. '_Eh it's keeping em off the boy.'_ as she noticed his more relaxed posture.

"You don't have to do that An-chan" the boy said quietly.

"Kid, these people aren't worth your time of day." She frowned "The old man told me that your dream is to be recognized as a great ninja and become Hokage. I can tell you now just being Hokage won't get you recognition from everyone, there will still be people like this that will glare at you because they are fools and don't know any better...also, the Hokage is a military leader, that means he is appointed by his military, his ninja. Not the civilians. If you really want to get some recognition show the ninjas who you are first and the civilians will follow."

The boy froze at what Anko had said, _'Really?' _he thought to himself, he turned to Anko with a small smile on his face. "Thank you An-chan"

"Any time Gaki." The walk to the Wolf Claw weapon shop from there was in a deep but comfortable silence.

"Welcome!" a cheerful voice greeted them as they entered the shop, "Can I help you with anything" the man behind the counter asked, he looked to be a middle aged man with greying hair and a cheerful face, if anything he reminded Naruto of old man Ichiraku.

"Hey Dustin" Anko greeted. "We're here for some threads for the gaki here."

"Heh, same as always Anko." he scratched his beard in thought. "Yeah I heard from Sarutobi you were coming by, said you needed some supplies and a new wardrobe for the runt here, though I gotta say when he said your clothes were a mess I imagined them to be more...well in pieces, what you have on now doesn't look half bad."

"Pfft yeah the kid here made em from some cloth, an old t-shirt, a belt and some rope, the little guy is pretty damn good." She ruffled said kids' hair playfully.

"I'll say, that's pretty professional work right there, it almost looked store bought except for the few seams that are visible. I wouldn't mind having him around the shop fixing a few of the special orders I get."

"Heh I'll keep that in mind if he ever needs a job."

"Yeah" Dustin chuckled, "But on to business, what's on the kids to do list? I'll help you find anything you want, Sarutobi said to put it on his tab so you can get just about anything you want."

"Well, we need some scrolls on elemental manipulation, one for each element..."

"Ah, I see the rumors are true after all " Dustin interrupted her "Word is the kid's got all the elements under his belt, am I right?"

"Yeah"Anko whispered "But keep that under your hat, I'd like for those rumors to stay rumors for as long as possible, no need to make things harder on him."

You don't even need to ask, I'm a good friend of Sarutobi's, I wouldn't be unless he and I shared views on things, and Naruto is one of the things we see eye to eye on, you're straight with me as long as you don't stiff the bill."

Anko chuckled "Heh as pragmatic as ever I guess, well as I was saying, we need scrolls on elemental manipulation, just the basics for now since I've really only ever covered earth manipulation." Dustin nodded "He'll also need some kunai and shuriken, preferably the practice kind if you have em, I don't need him cutting anything off before I can get to it." she raised an eyebrow in his general direction and Naruto could only chuckle nervously.

"...I see the OTHER rumor is true too" Dustin remarked dryly.

"Under the hat old man, or it won't be the boy that looses something to a kunai." She growled.

"Easy, easy." he held his hands in front of him defensively. "I have a few sets of practice shuriken and kunai in stock, anything else?"

"Yeah" she punted Naruto in the rear towards the clothing section. "Go fetch Gaki"

"I'm not a dog." Naruto grumbled.

"No, you're a little fox, now get, before I do that thing I did to you this morning again." She flashed him a hungry little grin, Naruto paled visibly and took off into the rows of clothing.

Dustin turned to Anko "Do I even want to know?" he deadpanned

"Nope."

"..."

A few minutes passed before Naruto came back, the two adults in the room turned and their eyebrows rose, Naruto apparently had good taste in clothing. He had somehow found a mesh armor undershirt his size along with a black t-shirt on top with the mesh coming out a few inches under the arms, his shorts were black as well and had orange strips running down the seams on the side, A pair of fingerless black gloves were on each hand and a pair of black ninja sandals on his feet. The grey hat still sat loosely on his head though since there was nothing really loose to cover his ears, he just had to settle for grabbing a roll of black cloth and another belt to make a black one later. For accessories he had a kunai holster strapped to his leg, a ninja pouch on his waist, and on his back was a small tanto, which looked more like a full length blade on the small boy.

"Wow" they both said at the same time.

"Not bad Gaki. That's a nice look, but whats with the sword?" The snake mistress pointed to the blade curiously.

"I...don't really know, I just liked it, I never really had any weapons to practice with and this is something my size."

Dustin rubbed his chin thoughtfully "Makes sense, if the kid is going to get used to a sword or blade its good to start small and work your way up.

"All right I guess, but you can only practice with it while I'm around I don't want you cutting yourself with it." Naruto nodded

Dustin marked a few things down on a piece of paper. "OK, you have the scrolls, the training tools and some new clothing and weapons, anything else?"

Naruto thought for a moment before something caught his interest "Hey Old man could we talk over there for a second...Alone?" he looked out of the corner of his eye at a frowning Anko.

"Uh, yeah, sure kid." the two walked to the back of the store for a few minutes, Anko watching the discussion silently, the boy was whispering in the mans ear so she really couldn't make out what he was saying but by the way Dustin pulled back surprised and looked in her direction it couldn't be anything good. The two of them walked back to the counter "Yeah kid I'll get what you wanted but are you sure? That's a bit advanced for you right now."

"Yeah I'm sure." He nodded

"Ok, one moment" He walked to the back and opened his storeroom door, after a few minutes of rustling papers and clanging of metal the man returned with a scroll in his hand. "Everything is in this storage scroll, just send chakra into it and the materials will pop out, to store stuff just do the same." as he handed the scroll to the boy.

"Thanks Old man."

"Heh for a friend of Sarutobi it's the least I could do." Dustin grinned at the boy "It's all on his tab so don't worry I'll send him the bill."

"Hehehe, thanks" he smiled back as the pair walked out of the store.

Dustins smile slowly turned somber as he watched the two walk away though the window. A small yawn from behind him turned the man around, looking around he noticed his daughter standing in the stairway to the living area.

"Who was that daddy?" The girl asked, the buns in her hair bouncing as she yawned again.

"Just a friend Tenten, the son of a good friend, a man who I respected greatly." his voice was quiet as Tenten nodded sleepily and walked into the kitchen. "Minato..." he whispered "Your son is going to make one hell of a ninja, I just know it..."

_**-ooo-**_

"Mind telling me what's in the scroll?" Anko asked sweetly...a little too sweetly...

Naruto looked warily at her "No." he held the scroll behind him.

An eyebrow rose "Why?"

"It's a surprise." the boy stuck his tongue out at her

"And we're husband and wife now tell me what's in the scroll." she whispered angrily.

"No" He growled at her and turned away.

"Gaki, just, hey! Get your ass back here!" she yelled at him when she noticed he had started running away from her towards a nearby playground.

"Oi you brat, get back here." she chased after him.

The chase lasted a good 10 minutes as they ran through the busy market district, and Anko had to admit, the kid was fast for his age, hell he was almost as fast as a high ranked genin, and the way he weaved in and out of crowds of people baffled her.

"Heh catch me if you can." Naruto whispered to himself as he made his way to the playground. He took to jumping from stall to stall as his destination came into view "Almost there" he laughed. as he made a final leap to one of the slides, unfortunately for him he over shot it a bit and lost his footing "Shit" he cursed as he lost his balance and fell over the edge.

"Eeep!" a voice from below cried as a loud thump sounded.

...

"Ouch" Naruto rubbed his head as he leaned up on one arm. "Where...?" he froze when he noticed a small girl in a similar situation next to him. "Um...Hi..." he rubbed the back of his head nervously feeling that his hat had fallen off in the fall.

"H-hello." the girl stuttered.

"Hello as well, the names Naruto, and sorry for falling on yah, I'm kinda being chased by my An-chan.

"H-Hinata" she poked her fingers together nervously "And w-who is A-An-c-chan?"

"GAKI, GET YOUR ASS OUT HERE NOW" A voice screamed in the distance

Naruto sweatdropped "That would be her...I don't want you to get in trouble too so I'll sneak away, just keep quiet please?" he turned away from her looking around nervous.

"A-Ano, Naruto-san?"

"Yeah?" he turned to her curiously

"I-is this your h-hat?" she held up the thing in question.

"Uh, yeah...thanks." he flashed her a smile that made the girl feel all fuzzy on the inside as he put the hat on his head. "Thanks for the help, I kinda needed it. You know you're a nice person" he flashed another smile that made her melt.

"T-thank you." Hinata blushed.

"No problem, see yah" He jumped over the fence that seperated the playground from the road and ran off.

"There you are you brat, come back here!" a voice yelled in the distance.

_'N-naruto-san...no...Naruto-k-kun...' _the girl thought to herself. _'He's...nice, not like father, and those e-ears on his head...'_ the girl blushed again, she had peaked at the boy's head when he was looking around, and said appendages had grown enough to be noticeable above his hair

"So cute..."

_**-ooo-**_

Naruto Shivered slightly

"I suddenly feel threatened" He shivered again with Anko not far behind him.

-_**several hours later, top of the hokage monument, sunset-**_

"Dammit...gaki" Anko choked out, huffing in exhaustion.

"I told you already it was a secret." The boy stuck his tongue out at her with his back to the edge, apparently the chase had made its way through most of the villiage and ended on top of the Hokage monument, coincidentally on the head of the Yondaime.

"Alright already" Anko gasped "It's a secret, now get your happy ass over here away from the edge."

Naruto looked at her for a moment defensively, relaxing slightly when Anko backed off, "Will you promise not to take the scroll?"

"Yeah I promise, now hurry up."

Naruto slowly made his way towards her keeping the scroll tight in his fist.

"Hurry up dammit!" she growled. Naruto approached her warily keeping an eye on her hands, when she flashed behind him, his eyes flew wide as a fist connected with the back of his head.

_**2 minutes later **_

_'Ok I deserved that one' _Naruto thought, weeping anime tears.

"What have we learned? ...Again?"

"Don't piss you off?" he rubbed the large knot on his head comicly.

"Close enough." she picked him up by the back of his shirt and brought him to eye level, "Scare me like that again and I'll have my snakes tie you up for the day and you won't do jack shit, understand?"

"Yes Anko-san, he nodded quickly.

"Good, I'll respect your privacy for that damn scroll but let's get some dango, chasing you made me hungry."

"Wait, An-chan." The boy grabbed her coat.

"What is it Gaki?" she turned around and crouched low, hearing the pleading in the boys voice.

"I'm sorry about scaring you, I didn't just run away to get away from you I kinda wanted to show you my special place..." His voice trailed off as he nervously looked away.

Anko turned beet red for a moment thinking he meant...well, something dirty, but the boy turned away from her and pointed towards the western wall of the village. Anko looked and her voice caught in her throat, in front of her was a view she had never seen before. The entire village was bathed in a crimson sunset, it was...too beautiful to even say anything, she only knelt close to Naruto and enveloped him in a hug from behind, neither one said anything, they just sat there and watched the sun set, turning the world from red to orange, orange to purple and finally ending in a deep ocean blue that gave way to the first stars of the night.

Anko was silent for a long time after that, still holding onto the boy for dear life. Finally her voice, nothing but a whisper broke the silence "N-Naruto..."

"Yeah?" he whispered back.

"Thank you" She squeezed him tighter. a few minutes passed before naruto spoke.

"...Anko?"

"Yeah?"

"I...cant...breath..."

"Ah..." she replied blankly, releasing the boy, who was turning an unhealthy shade of blue. "Sorry..."

Naruto gasped as she let him go "Don't...worry...about it."

Alright Gaki, lets get going, I worked up an appetite chasing your ass around, after we get some food we're going home."

"Ok An-chan." he grabbed a hold of the woman's arm and the two of them walked to the nearest Dango shop...'suggested' by Anko...via sharp pointy hurty things...

**-ooo-**

**A/N another chapter down, just a day of shopping and character development.**

**I know these chapters have been Anko heavy in regards to the harem, but she's going to be the 'head' wife since she's probably going to be the oldest of the wives, so she's responsible for the others, also, I need time to develop characters dammit :O so having a few chapters to Anko is just common sense.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Sup people? Here to bring you the next chapter and there ain't a damn thing you can do to stop me :D**

**Ok, I think I need to say a few things, since there's been a few comments on each of the things I'm about to say and I don't feel like answering all of them individually.  
**

**First off, YES! Hinata is going to be in the Harem, I am admitting that right now. No it is not up for debate. If you don't like her that's your problem, I can't please everyone. However if your problem is her stealing the spotlight or her being the quiet timid little Hyuuga for the entire story then you don't have to worry, I'm going to give her a unique personality and she's going to get as much spotlight as the rest of the women in the story so don't freaking worry :O  
**

**Yes due to popular demand I'm adding more women, I don't know how many but we're gonna burn that bridge when we cross it, however I don't know if it'll cross that 10 girl limit I put up earlier, it's just annoying though, to get the girls most people like or the ones I personally like into the story it requires going THROUGH other women to accomplish it, say like getting Sakura through Ino, Tayuya through Kin etc. Not saying any of those four will be used but you get where I'm coming from here. Ugh, and a vast majority of the women in the story that are easily accessible are during the chunin exams, so that's going to be fun trying to fit my brain around that.  
**

**Finally, thank you for all the positive reviews, I'm honestly surprised by the reactions to this story, To me all I see are the flaws in the story the few things I've missed, ****I guess what they say is true I'm my own worst critic XD. However a few of you brought up some fairly decent points in your reviews and pm's, hell a couple of you actually predicted a few things I had planned and corrected some things that I hadn't thought about. (You know who you are, spank you helpy helpertons :D) for that I thank you and hope you enjoy the story.**

**Ok enough of me on to the story!  
**

**Disclaimer: Blah blah blah don't own Naruto and you all know it, though if you do own it and want to give said ownership to me I'll gladly take it.**

"speech"

_'Thoughts'_

**"Demon speech"**

_**'Demon thoughts'**_

Jutsu

**-ooo-**

_**Chapter 5 impractical training and school days**_

_-Outside training ground 44's Tower, 2 weeks later-_

It's been two weeks since the accident, With the help of a gag order from Sarutobi, most of what happened to Naruto was reduced to a rumor. The Uchiha massacre that happened only a few days after that drew even more attention away from him, with the entire village focused on the tragedy, it kept Naruto out of the public eye long enough for most people to forget about the incident. In that time Naruto's fox ears grew out to full size, his tail was the next thing to come in, the fluffy appendage was currently sticking out the back of a pair of casual clothes he had stitched together from another large shirt Anko had given him, the baggyness of the pants was more comfortable on his rear since the tail was still a little tender, He still shuddered when he thought back on Anko's reaction to it..."UUUUGH, the pain, too squishy" he shivered unconsciously. Sadly our young hero suffered first hand from the combined effects of marshmallow hell and an overly zealous glomping, Kami help him if any other women got a hold of him. Hell he was still massaging the kinks out of his tail, though it was weird having a tail to begin with, his sense of balance was thrown off but at the same time felt more balanced overall. He also felt stronger, and his senses were increasing as well, if things kept going the way they were going he might even consider this a blessing rather than a curse.

"Oi Gaki?" Anko called from the entrance to the tower, breaking the boy from his musing

He turned to her curiously "Yeah An-chan?"

"I think it's time I start training you, you've had a week to get used to your new animal parts and I think it's time we bust ass and start your ninja training"

His face lit up "Yeah, It's getting boring just sitting around doing nothing. I'm ready for anything you can throw at me" hopping around a couple times and doing a few punches and kicks to prove his point.

"Actually, first I want to know something."

The blond stopped and looked at her "What?"

"You know that jutsu you used when we talked to Kyubi?"

He thought a moment "Oh, you mean the Kyuubi shadow clone jutsu?"

"Yeah that one, do you know the parent jutsu? The Shadow clone Jutsu?"

He nodded "Yeah, That was the first thing Kyuubi taught me so I could use the Kyuubi Clone. Why?"

"Well, now things get alot easier, do you know the special ability of shadow clones Gaki?"

"No, why?" he scratched his head in thought.

"Try and make as many as you can and I'll show you."

"OK." he shrugged, gathering a large amount of chakra _"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"_ a giant puff of smoke filled the clearing, when the smoke cleared there was easily more than 200 clones around Anko.

Anko's eyes widened as she noticed all the clones "THE FUCK?" she yelled, literally falling on her ass in surprise.

Naruto looked around confused, "What? Did I not make enough?"

"Not enough, are you insane?" Anko's thoughts were whirling _'How the hell can he make so many shadow clones? For fucks sake, I've never seen anyone make this many...wait, if he can make this many...My god...The third was right the brat could be a prodigy in the making, screw the bloodlines and the elements, just being able to do this is a gift itself.'_

"Um...An-chan, are you alright?" His voice was filled with concern.

"Y-yeah, just fine" the shock was finally beginning to wear off, just the thought of what he could do with this many clones made her adrenaline rise. _'All the possibilities...ALL the...NO BAD ANKO! No gangbang jutsu's!"_ she slapped herself and stood up quickly, "Naruto, don't worry, if anything this should be impossible to do, just the fact you are doing it is amazing."

He tilted his head "So what now?"

"Now I show you a neat trick that shadow clones can do, _"Shadow clone Jutsu!"_ She yelled out, a single clone forming beside her. "Have one of your clones follow me Gaki." as the clone walked off into the woods.

"You heard her." One of the clones broke off from the rest and followed Anko's clone deep into the woods. after a few minutes of walking Naruto's clone turned to Anko's clone "Now wh..?" the clone started to ask but before the clone could even react Anko's clone had stabbed it with a Kunai, dispelling it. A second later Anko's clone dispelled as well.

**_-Back with the original-_**

"Oi! Why'd you kill my clone?" Naruto growled.

She grinned "AH, but how did you know I killed it?"

"What do you mean you just..." the boy frowned in confusion, before a small smirk slowly crossed his face. "Anything a clone experiences gets sent back to the original when its dispelled doesn't it?"

"Got it in one Gaki." she laughed "From now until you join the academy next year, you are going to be training with shadow clones, by the time you make Genin I'll have your ass at chunin level." She flashed him an evil grin which sent a chill up his spine. This wasn't going to be pleasant he just knew.

"Alright, first off, we aren't going to be learning any new jutsu, I'm telling you that now. What we're going to cover till you start the academy is chakra control and nature transformation." she walked over to a nearby tree and yanked a leaf off one of its limbs. "First, is chakra control exercises" As she placed the leaf on her forehead and channeled chakra into it to float it lasily above her head, much to Naruto's amazement. "The objective of this first exercise is basic control, keep the leaf floating over your head with chakra for as long as you can, its not power you're after, it's control. Since there's around 200 clones here we'll have 100 working on chakra control, and 20 each working on a separate element." She grabbed the 5 elemental scrolls from her pouch and tossed them to one of the clones "Get to work" She then pointed to the original "You're coming with me." she was about to walk away when something stopped her "Oh." she yelled at the mass of clones "Hey, if you need to dispel don't do it all at once or you'll give the original a bitch of a headache." she turned away from the mass of clones, "Come on, lets go" the two of them walked to another clearing on the other side of the tower.

"So what are we doing over here?" He asked curiously

"Simple, since Shadow clones can only send back mental information, physical abilities need to be worked on by the original, sure you can work on your reflexes and instinct, but things like muscle memory and increasing your body's strength, speed, stamina and flexibility is all down to you."

he raised an eyebrow "So we're exercising?"

She smirked "Something like that" an evil chuckle escaped her lips as she explained her 'training' all the while Naruto turned paler and paler.

"Are you fucking INSANE!" finally finding the words to express himself.

"Maybe" she laughed. "But that doesn't change the fact that you're going to do it."

Naruto sighed, the sooner he got this over with the sooner he could rest. Kami it was going to be a long day..._'200 push-ups, sit-ups, kicks, punches and squats all before lunch, and then I have to SPAR with her. ugh this is going to hurt.'_

**_-With the clones-  
_**

"Ok let's see here... Nature transformation, the basics" The clone scanned each of the scrolls intently. "Channel chakra into the object and imagine that element's properties in that object. For fire, superheat your chakra and imagine burning the object. For wind, split your chakra in half and grind it to a fine edge to cut the object. For lightning, aggravate your chakra in the object to create a static charge. For earth, harden your chakra around the object and grind against it. For water, use your chakra to gather the moisture in the air and soak the object. Seems pretty straight forward" The clone grabbed a leaf and held it up high, "ALRIGHT ME'S, it's time to get to work!" the clone pumped its fist before it dispelled itself and sent the info through the ranks.

_-__**Hokage's office-**_

"So it begins eh?" an image of Naruto flashed through the crystal ball "heh, Just seeing that many clones makes me feel old" Sarutobi chuckled to himself. "I see great things in your future Naruto. Your father passed his will on to you while your mother passed on her love, remember both their sacrifices Naruto, grow stronger from them and show the world you aren't some demon, show them the _real _you, the you your parents would be proud of." He sat there for a long moment taking a drag off his pipe, the quiet of the room ringing in his ears. The third sighed as he exhaled the smoke from his lungs, "Good luck Naruto, knowing your fathers luck you'll need it" a dry laugh filled the air as the third again sat in silence. "Although knowing your mothers luck..."

_**-A few hours later, back with the original Naruto-**_

_'KAMI KILL ME NOW!' _ The boy mentally yelled, his arms were already like jelly but Anko insisted he learn the basic kata's to her Taijutsu style so they could spar, he had learned the first and second kata's though the use of shadow clones, but the woman wasn't letting up, she kept pressing him to learn the moves, and any time his stance was off she'd correct him...with sharp pointy things.

"Ok Gaki, you got the first three kata down for this style, those are the basics, and they're enough to get you through a light spar, so come on, get off your ass and let's do this." She stood a few meters away from him in what she called the python stance, a stance based on defense and single heavy strikes, perfect to spar against without killing the kid.

"Can't we at least take a 5 minute break? I can't even feel my arms right now."

"Quit the bitching, can't feel your arms can't feel the pain now attack me, or do I have to come to you?" she rose an eyebrow at this, almost daring him to let her attack first.

"The hell I'd give you a reason to kick my ass." he charged forward in the standard viper stance, the most basic of the stances built on speed and quick successive strikes. As it stood the boy was decent in speed and could deliver fairly strong punches even if the stance he was currently using was meant for cherry tapping. "Ahhh!" The boy yelled, as he ran towards Anko, fist leading in a vicious punch.

"That's more like it!" She blocked the strike with her palm, with a swift jerk she tossed the boy behind her, Naruto flew through the air a few feet before he righted himself in the air and landed on all fours, he dug his feet in and rushed her again, dodging from side to side, to try and throw Anko off.

"Not bad kid." She laughed, dodging to the side to trip him and send him rolling into a tree in a heap. "But not good either, you leave yourself too open when you charge. When you come in for a strike and you're ducking back and forth like that you need to keep inside of your opponents striking arm and make sure you can correct yourself if your opponent dodges. That was a good try though, now pick up your dignity and fight me."

"Crazy snake bitch" Naruto grumbled under his breath as he got back into his stance and charged again, coming in for a low strike to the ankles hoping to cripple his opponent somewhat to at least give him some advantage, it didn't help his self esteem any that he was having to fight someone twice his size. Anko responded to the kick by hoping just over it, bringing her foot up as she did so to catch Naruto under the chin, sending him flying back again, he rolled with it and got to his feet after sliding a good 15 feet.

"Tell me again, how kicking my ass is supposed to make me stronger?" Naruto asked rubbing his bruised jaw.

"It's training, deal with it." she stated flatly.

"Figures..." he mumbled, getting back into position again, this time he was going to take it slower, just rushing in there wasn't doing anything.

"Oh using a defensive stance? Well now, let's test it shall we?" A wide grin crossed her face as she rushed him.

"Sh-Shit" Naruto cursed. bringing his arms in front of him in a cross to stop the kick aimed for his face, the blow knocked him back a few feet, he rolled to the side as a fist connected with the ground where he was a second before, he placed his hands on the ground and kicked out with his left foot catching Anko on her lead shoulder before tucking into a roll to dodge a kick she threw his way. Quickly getting to his feet he blocked a punch and sent it wide, getting in closer under her guard he sent a punch into her stomach before hopping back to get out of the grapple she was going for.

"Heh that was a nice punch Gaki." she coughed "That actually hurt a little"

"You do know that this is hardly fair right? You're twice my height and weight, many times my experience and I'm pretty sure you're just toying with me."

"And you think you won't fight people like that when you become a ninja? Anko deadpanned "I fought Orochimaru's snake summons and won in a taijutsu match, those bastards are bigger than a house, you think that bothered me at the time? Hell no! I did exactly what you are doing now, using your opponents movements against them and striking when you have an opening." She smirked again "And since you've hit me, you're clearly up to this level of speed."

"This...level?" a sinking feeling filled his stomach

"Low Genin speed test COMPLETE!" She yelled exuberantly. "High Genin time!"

"Fuc-" his words were cut off by a fist to the face...

_**-3 months later-**_

"Alright Gaki, take five!" Anko yelled at him as the boy collapsed in a heap. He had spent the last 3 hours doing nothing but endurance training, which frankly surprised her. She'd thrown other Chunin through her personal gauntlet a few times in her career and the gaki handled it like a seasoned Jonin, the kid had stamina there wasn't any doubt about it. _'Maybe he could use that stamina for other things kukukuku-hrk BAD ANKO!'_ She slapped herself _'No pedo thoughts!'_ she looked out over the clearing to see her husbands clones at work. His chakra control and change in chakra nature training was going well, He'd gotten the leaf floating exercise after the first week of training, though even with his clones it took awile since he was still a child and his control was abysmal at best. Even now, tree climbing was still a a bit difficult for him to maintain. Of course she was also making him float leaves while climbing the trees to maximize the tortu...er...training. As for the change in nature training he'd completed channeling all five elements into a leaf, he was struggling through the second part of the training though. It would most likely take him the rest of the year to finish the second step for each element.

Anko's mouth cracked into a wicked smirk, _'Plenty of time to get the kid's asskicking potential up to snuff' _the smirk spread out into a large ear to ear grin. _'The academy teachers won't know what the hell hit them kukukukuku-hrk...'_

_**-7 months later-**_

The loud yells of children and the shuffling of feet surround the pair as they made their way though the crowd towards the academy doors, all around them there were children of several different age groups, the largest of which was right in front of them, the 'fresh meat' as the older students joked. that first year would be starting point, where the dreams of many a genin hopeful would follow.

"Heh, alot of competition Gaki. Think you can handle it?"

Naruto snorted in amusement "Please, after that hell you put me through?" he shot her a small glare "You should feel sorry for them." he pointed to the group in question who all seemed like they would 'play' being ninja rather than just 'being' ninja.

"Pfft hahaha, yeah I guess you're right" as they walked into the academy, Oh and remember what I told you?"

Naruto got into his best Anko impression "Hold back just enough to make people think you're weaker then them, deception is a ninja's bread and butter, yada yada yada, Yeah I know, I'll keep my skills to myself for now but that doesn't mean I wont do stupid shit in class...you never did beat THAT out of me" he chuckled at that last bit.

"Why would I beat the creativity out of you? Some of those pranks were pure gold gaki" a small hint of shock filled her voice, though Naruto knew it was bullshit and she was fucking with him...one of the few things he couldn't stand about the woman, she hid her jokes so well that sometimes you didn't know she was making fun of you.

"Yeah" He chuckled after a few seconds. "So any last minute advice?

The buxom Kunoichi raised her hand to her chin thoughtfully, she seemed to honestly think about it for a good five seconds before reality and her merciless attitude reared its ugly head. "Yeah, don't let your mouth write checks your ass can't cash, try and make some friends and for the love of Kami, Watch out for fangirls.

"Fangirls?" beads of sweat formed on Narutos brow as the word sunk in, "Fuck that. I'd rather go toe to toe with fuzz-butt than meet one of those in a dark alley."

"Pffttt hahahaha" Anko's merciless laughter filled the air. "That's a good mindset , fangirls would tear you apart if they knew what kind of abilities you have at your fingertips, hell If _I_ wan't to jump your bones when you're older just think what a group of preteen girls would do?" Naruto grew several shades of white "Plus I heard the Uchiha brat that survived that clan massacre is in your class, heh, the boy has a fanclub already, I'm surprised he's even alive right now with the way they're clawing at his door all the time."

It took a moment before Naruto could recompose himself after that little mental torture Anko put him through "Ok watch for fangirls" he shivered again "try and make some friends and don't pick needless fights, got it. Can I show off a little to put arrogant pricks in their place?"

She gave him a thumbs up "Yeah sure Gaki, you have my blessing to take the sticks out of peoples asses when you feel the need to, so go in there and kick some ass!"

Naruto's hand snapped to his forehead as he went rigid in a salute "maam, yes maam!" he roared, and ran off to his first class, ready to raise some hell.

The door to the classroom slid open as the sounds of talking filled the air around Naruto. He looked around the room taking in each new face with interest. Out of everyone there, only a dozen or so even looked at him. _'Well then, start with the friendliest looking ones I guess.' _He readjusted all his clothing to make sure his foxy bits were hidden and walked over to a young boy who was munching away at a bag of chips like his life depended on it. "Hello, names Naruto Uzumaki" Naruto reached out his hand in a shake. The boy looked at the offered hand for a moment before taking it in his.

"Choji Akamichi" he smiled, teeth flashing with some food between them.

"Choji what have I said about swallowing your food before you talk?" a bored voice droned from his side, Naruto turned to look at the boy next to choji, _'hmm, laid back, bored, pineapple hairdo...heh this guy looks interesting' _ he reached out his hand to the other kid "Naruto Uzumaki, nice to met you"

"Shikamaru Nara, same" he returned the shake again in a bored tone.

After Naruto found his seat he scanned the room, the other few people who still seemed interested in him were some kid with glasses and a longcoat, name was Shino or something like that. A girl he recognized as Hinata sitting in the back of the room. And two women who seemed to be fawning over someone in the corner. Or in other words...fangirls..._'stay the fuck away mode: ACTIVATE!'_

"YAHOO!" A voice yelled from the back of the room, the three boys turned to see a wild looking boy in a hoodie hopping up and down in joy.

"Oi, dog boy, keep it down!" Naruto yelled at him, he had smelled a strong scent of dog when he walked in thanks to his new fox like nature but he couldn't place where it was coming from, looking at the wild boy now he could tell the smell was coming from him.

The dog boy turned to Naruto with a scowl on his face "You wanna start something, huh?**"**

"Heh, I don't start things dog breath, I finish them." he replied in a cold tone that sent shivers up the spines of several people in the room, _'Oh I am so thanking Anko for teaching me that killing intent trick, the look on everyone's face is priceless.' _ the dog boy paled a little bit and a bead of sweat formed on his brow but other than that he was holding up rather well.

"Y-you picking a fight?" he stuttered slightly.

"Nah, only if you start it, but I won't do anything unless you do something. I'm here to make friends and learn how to be a ninja, so what do you say? Friends?" he reached his hand out for the third time that day and smiled a genuine smile.

Dog boy's expression turned from scared to confused, his brow twitching nervously as his eyebrows nitted together. "Sure" he said at length "Names Kiba Inuzuka."

"Naruto Uzumaki, and I gotta ask, why do you smell like a dog so much? I could understand maybe having a pet that has its scent on you but that's not it, your entire body smells like it."

"Ehh, you can smell that? You must have a pretty good nose. Yeah, my family is famous for our Ninken ninja dogs, you could say we're as apart of our partners as they are to us, thats sort of the reason I was yelling earlier I just found out earlier today that I'll be getting my ninken partner soon." His grin took up his entire face at that.

Naruto looked a little freaked out at the boys reaction to getting a dog. "Yeeaah, ok. I can't really see myself with an animal partner but whatever, to each their own."

"If you don't like animal partners, why do you smell like a fox so much huh?"

Naruto was confused for a second before he palmed his face "Oh, that... yeah thats just a part of my bloodline" his eyes widened a bit, he hadn't meant to say that...

Most of the people in the room who were barely listening before now were eyeing the boy intently "You have a bloodline?" Shikamaru asked. "What is it?"

"Yeah...um, its kind of a first generation bloodline, so I'm the first person in the village to have it" He laughed nervously. _'Shit I didn't want to have to use this lie yet...oh well'_ The kyubi container rubbed the back of his head "As for what it is...well...that's a bit of a long story..."

"We have another 30 minutes or so before class starts." kiba nudged him. Apparently he wasn't gonna let this go so, in no little frustration Naruto began his 'tale' using the lies Anko concocted for him to make making friends a bit easier on him, that, and being able to show off his foxy attributes without worrying too much about being looked on as a monster.

"Well it starts 8 years ago on October 10th the day of the Kyubi attack...and my birthday" he said absently making a few in the room wide eyed, "During the fox attack the hospital I was in was crushed under one of the foxes tails, apparently I was the only one there at the time so I don't know what happened to my parents, most assumed they had died in the attack and I was put into an orphanage, well, it turns out that one of the Kyubi's tails came extremely close to me during all that, and a large portion of its chakra blanketed the area around me, now normally the foxes chakra would have killed any normal person exposed to it. Somehow, I survived and up until a year ago I was a regular looking person, normal, except for a few whisker marks on my cheeks." he pointed to the marks in question. "But a year ago my bloodline activated, the foxes chakra had changed my body a bit and mutated it into a bloodline and well...um...I might as well get this out of the way while I'm letting everything out..." he closed his eyes for a moment before taking his hat off and pulling his tail out from his pants. "Yeah I kinda got a few 'other' gifts from that attack as well" He laughed nervously.

Now there were many things that Naruto was expecting, fear, hatred, anger, all of the above in most cases, but the looks on the kids' faces shocked him to his very core. _'They...they look amazed'_ the boys of the class looked at him in awe while the girls... _'Oh kami...they look...hungry.'_ They were eyeing his twitching ears and the way his tail flicked back and forth with a desire to glomp his foxyness. Naruto backed away quickly from the girls, which confused the boys in the room, that is until they looked at the girls and started snickering at Naruto who paled visibly.

"Hn." A voice grunted from the side.

Naruto turned to the sound, to eye a boy sitting on the far side of class next to a window _'Let's see...Black hair, black eyes, broody emo attitude, yep. Definitely an Uchiha.' _The blonde was mildy annoyed by this, the bastard was ignoring him like he wasn't even worth his time "Oi, you got a problem with me?"

"No, you're just a loser, that's all." he replied in an even voice." Almost all of the girls in the room swooned at his supposed 'coolness'

_'Ohohoho he did not just go there.'_ Naruto seethed, teeth gritted in anger. His anger quickly cooled though as a smile touched his lips, "Heh if you think I'm such a loser kid why don't you put your money where your mouth is, or are you afraid?" The black haired boy jerked his head towards Naruto, a look of anger on his face.

"Watch what you say loser, I'm an Uchiha." The black haired boy growled at him

"Pfft Uchiha, a clan who does nothing but steal the hard work of others, and they say they're 'nobility' Hah more like a clan of thieves more like it." That was it, the Uchiha boy was out of his seat and raising a fist back to strike. Naruto just smiled and stepped to the side, tripping the boy like Anko had done to him his first day of training. The Uchiha had speed that's for sure, but after fighting the Snake mistress for so long it felt like he was moving in slow motion.

Sasuke picked himself off the ground and glared at Naruto with a look of pure hatred on his face.

Naruto just stared "What? Was that it? Hahahaha, seriously dude you're pathetic." Another fist flew at the boy but a quick grab caught the hand and in a small movement Naruto had his leading leg between the Uchiha's, in a single jerking motion the boy was flipped over his back and laid out on the ground, knocking the air out of his lungs.

Naruto stood over him and stared intently into his black eyes "Look, I'm here to make friends and learn how to be a better ninja, I will even consider you a friend and ally if you do 2 simple things, that goes for the rest of you too" he snapped to the others in the room who flinched "One, Don't make fun of me or the memory of my family" he paused to let those words sink in a little bit "And two, don't try to hurt those that I consider friends, you do that and we won't have a problem, If you don't... well getting your ass handed to you is the least of your worries" his cold tone sent chills down several peoples' spine. he held his hand out "Names Naruto Uzumaki"

The Uchiha glared at the hand for a moment before grabbing it, "Sasuke Uchiha" he grunted as he was hauled to his feet.

"Nice to meet yah" the Blonde smiled, Confusing everyone there, where had that cold hard look the boy had on earlier gone? It was like it never existed...

"Troublesome" Shikamaru deadpanned from the side.

_**-ooo-**_

"OK class, today we're going to be learning how to throw Kunai and Shuriken." The instructor pointed to a wooden target 15 feet away. The chunin stood before the target, showed the class the correct method of handling both thrown weapons, with a quick flick the pieces of bladed death hurtled towards the wooden target, with a meaty thunk all of them hit home, a decent 7 out of 10 kill shots, the other three were not lethal but had it been on a human target would have hobbled them. "Now line up in front of the target and throw the five kunai and shuriken that are provided."

The children rushed to get in line, Naruto found himself near the back of the line, thankfully he had his tail poked back down his pants and his cap back on before the teachers could come back into the room and start something, now outside in the training area he could finally relax a bit."

"Hey Naruto." A voice whispered next to him.

"Hmm?" he turned to the voice and noticed Shikamaru and Choji right behind him. "Yeah what is it?" he whispered back.

"Choji an me were wondering if you wanted to go out for barbacue later today, our treat." Apparently the two took his 'I want to make friends' speech to heart

_'Damn they start quick for being big and chronically lazy.' _ not that he was complaining any, "Sure, where are you going?" He wanted to get a good idea on which restaurant they were going to just to make sure it was a place he was at least tolerated. After Choji told him it was one of his parents restaurants he calmed down a bit, it's not like they would stop him and his friends from eating at his own family restaurant just because of him...right?"

Thankfully that wasn't the case as Choji's father was there at the barbecue place. Choza had been at the council meeting that night and knew the boy wasn't the fox but its container, and when he and Naruto finally got to talk face to face it only cemented that fact, that and when Naruto had spoken of his love for Ramen Choza had a look on his face as if he'd found a long lost son. He let out a hearty laugh and told the chefs in the back to prepare a feast for his son and friends, needless to say the three academy students had to roll themselves out of the building when the meal was finished. They spent the rest of the day cloud watching and just talking about things they found delicious...or troublesome...

_**-ooo-**_

"Yo Kiba, keep the mutt off me!" Naruto groaned, scrapping the kiba's newly acquired companion off his shoe as Akamaru was gnawing bits of the straps off.

"Hey I can't help it if he's teething" the boy tried to defend himself.

"Then get him a chew toy dammit!" he growled yanking the dog off his foot and chucking him at Kiba. "And if he EVER humps my leg I will neuter him!" Naruto let out a little ki which made the few people around him sweat, Kiba on the other hand was bug-eyed and nodding in agreement, strangely Akamaru was doing the same...

"Quiet down class! Naruto stop threatening Kiba!"

_**-ooo-**_

Shino and Naruto sat across from each other in the school library, Naruto had a book on tactics and theory, while shino had a book on the many different species of insect of the leaf village, hardback 1st edition if I'm not mistaken.

"Shino." Naruto nodded to the boy

"Naruto." He nodded back

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Good day Naruto-san" he stood up and started to walk away.

"You too Shino-san" He continued to read. Odd how he respects silence like that...

_**-ooo-**_

Naruto was walking through the hall towards his next class, so far the academy was pretty awesome, thought the teachers taught a bunch of boring stuff almost every day, only letting them out to do exercises and practice the basic three. He stopped when he noticed Hinata was nearby looking at him.

"Hey Hinata-chan!" he waved to the pale hyuuga heiress, trying to be polite to the odd girl.

*Thump*

"Hinata! Why did you faint. Hinata!"

_**-ooo-**_

"Alright class, today we're going to have sparring matches to test out the taijutsu forms you've learned so far, any form is allowed but lethal moves and strikes are strictly forbidden." The chunin instructor pointed out Sasuke "Sasuke you're up, now who's going to spar with him?"

None of the other kids wanted to get in the ring with him since out of the entire class Sasuke had the highest scores in taijutsu, that is if you're not counting...

"I'll fight the bastard!" Naruto grinned as he walked to the front of the line.

"You sure about that dobe, you got lucky last time, this time I'll kick your ass." He pulled his shirt off exposing his pale chest to the girls of the class, as expected...

"Oh my god Sasuke is soooo hoooot!" the voice was piercing and could only belong to one Sakura Haruno.

"No doubt" Another loud voice agreed, this one belonged to Ino Yamanaka.

both were fangirls, both fucking scared Naruto to no end, however, for a good prank he would be willing to burst a few bubbles. He grinned ferally at Sasuke before slowly unbuttoning his shirt, he wore button ups so he wouldn't have to remove his hat to take the shirt off, but oh what a wonderful sound it was to hear most of the girls in the class gasp, along with a few of the boys as well...wait what...

Naruto was pretty built, his constant training with Anko had hardened quite a few areas of his body leaving lean muscles, it wasn't grossly disproportionate for his age, it simply flowed with his body type, compact muscles on a compact frame, and on naturally tan skin no less.

_'Que the fangirls in three, two, ...'_

"OH MY GOD!"

_'One' _he mentally chuckled. "Ok Sasuke, let's get this over with!" he took up the academy stance since it was what they were learning and egged the Uchiha on with a 'come get some' motion

Meanwhile on the sidelines.

"Sakura...?"

"Yeah Ino?"

"Naruto is hot...like really, really hot."

"Yeah I know..."

"What should we do?"

"I don't know..."

"..."

Hinata meanwhile was passed out with a massive nosebleed and whispering something about snuggling foxy blondes.

_**-ooo-**_

_**A/N All right that's it for this chapter, Hope you liked the little bits of hilarity I was able to stick into the chapter. Till next time.**_


	6. Chapter 6

**Hazard Here with chapter 6 in yo face!**

**Ok hope you enjoy the chapter **

**Not really any respondy reviews this time :( so let's get right into it.  
**

**Disclaimer: as always I don't own Naruto, if I did we wouldn't be talking right now cuz I'd be too busy swimming in my solid gold pool filled with liquid white chocolate.**

**-ooo-**

"speech"

_'Thoughts'_

**"Demon speech"**

_**'Demon thoughts'**_

Jutsu

_**Ch 6: Graduation.**_

_**-Academy, final testing day-**_

"Heh, four years. Has it really been four years?" Naruto grabbed the back of his head and leaned back in his seat in the corner of room, he looked around at the class as they were called to the front to take the graduation test. Over the course of the past 4 years he had made fairly decent headway in his studies getting up to what he thought would be mid chunin is skill before a fairly glaring wall halted his progress.

Using Kage Bunshin's had been a godsend for him, being able to learn at an accelerated pace could only ever be a plus, and he had taken it well beyond the extreme to take advantage of his new elemental mastery's, he finished each of his change in chakra natures so he was fairly proficient in his own mind, there were masters out there that could still control elements much greater than himself but he could still give an average shinobi a run for their money. One of the greatest accomplishments that Naruto's clones could claim were his raise in academics, While he wasn't top of the class he was still more knowledgeable about ninja life than pretty much anyone else in his class, and to a certain extent in the entire village, because he hadn't just brushed up on his ninja skills and history, he had expanded his library to include things that would help him later on in life, like fabricating his own weapons and supplies, Dustin had run him ragged teaching his smithing craft to the blond haired child, Naruto shivered at the memory.

_**-Flashback-**_

*Ring*

"Naruto, what can I do for you today my boy?" Dustin smiled at the kid, he was 10 now and had sprouted up a little bit since the last time he'd seen him.

"I was wondering sir, if you could teach me blacksmithing." Dustin raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"Eh and what would a ninja need to know blacksmithing for?"

Naruto twitched a little, rubbing his arm apprehensively "Well...I kinda need it for that thing we talked about when we first met."

The man's surprise grew, he'd thought the boy would give up on_ 'that' _when it got too difficult, but to still be trying after three years showed dedication and that was one thing Dustin prized above almost anything else.

"Heyo dad!" well almost anything, he prized his daughter more than anything else.

"Hello Tenten." Naruto greeted her, throwing her a little salute.

"Hey Naruto how have you been? It's been what? 2 months since you last came by?"

"I been doing good, and yeah it's been awhile, been too buzy with the academy and training?"

"You too? Man you're lucky. I have to deal with all the stiff shirts in the advanced classes. Theres this dude in my class, his name's Neji Hyuuga. A real hardass, kinda cute I have to admit but he doesn't have anything on you." she let out a little smile at the blonde maverick.

Naruto snorted at that. "You should see the girls of my class, after that little spar between me and Sasuke it's been a civil war between the fanclubs, I'm still shocked I HAVE a fanclub..." Naruto shivered unconsciously, hearing the phantom wails of the couple of girls in his class that fawned over him.

"What was that?" Tenten wondered.

"I felt a disturbance in the force"

"The what?"

"Nothing. Anyway I was trying to get your dad here to teach me a bit about blacksmithing, I just need a bit of training so I can make a few things myself when I need them."

"Pffft, Yo dad" she threw him a thumbs up "Don't worry about the whole, 'Take my secrets to the grave' shtick, teach Naruto here the basics and put him through the gauntlet." She let out a little evil chuckle, Dustin shared it, which made Naruto slightly uncomfortable, standing there with them leering at him.

"This is going to hurt isn't it?" Naruto asked blandly.

"Oh you have no idea." She chuckled.

"..."

_**-End Flashback-**_

After the torture that was learning from Dustin was over Naruto could honestly say he was humbled by the blacksmith, sure he wasn't anywhere close to a pro but he could still make many of the things that the village wouldn't give him. Only one real problem kept the boy down, plainly speaking his strength was shit, the wall that kept him tethered to low-mid chunin in skill was his body couldn't handle the forces involved with his rise in skills.

He was taller and stronger from his ordeal with Kyuubi sure, **(topping off roughly 4 inches taller than his canon self. Just slightly shorter than Rock Lee)** but he still had to build up his skills slowly but surely through constant training. Speaking of ordeals, after he had spilled the beans about his new foxy bits to the class the kids went back and told their parents about the kid with the 'foxy' bits in class, from what he could gather the parents had told them to stay away from the 'demon child' so he doesn't 'hurt you.' Bah, with his natural good natured personality along with his constant joking in class, many of the the kids ignored the warnings, to the parents dismay. Word had also spread around town about his new 'accessories.' but other than a few more glares, maybe a raised hand or two nothing seemed much different. It was either the fear of Kami that Anko put into people or the constant pranks he pulled that kept most of the civilians from taking him seriously. He still preferred to hide the ears and tail though, by either stuffing them away under clothing or hiding under a henge it didn't really matter.

As for his class mates, for four years he had been keeping tabs on them, creating a mental dossier on their personalities and abilities just in case he was ever paired with any of them. Naruto turned his gaze to the Duck headed wonder in the corner of the room and just stared. He couldn't describe the feeling of putting the arrogant Uchiha in his place when he stuck his head out during their spars. Overall, Sasuke was a nice guy when you got to know him, broody? Yes. Self Centered? Yes, but a decent guy none the less. He did carry a bit too much emotional baggage with him, a fact that Naruto would eventually break the boy of if it was the last thing he'd do, after all, he really was one of Naruto's first true friends so if he could help the Uchiha get over his pissy attitude he'd count that as a positive point in his book.

following the rows of the room had his eyes land on Sakura. The girl was good, a bit annoying in her fangirlish attitude, not to mention violent...but a clever mind and greater control of chakra you will not find in any of the other students, except for maybe Naruto himself...

The girl next to her, Ino...like Sakura except less book smart and more seductive, I swear she acted like a slut half the time in class but damn it it if wasn't effective...

Continuing on, Kiba, another good guy, loyal to a fault, decent friend, kind of annoying after he got his dog... some of the others in class think his dick is going to his head when he starts yapping off about starting his own 'pack.' Hell Naruto could start his own 'pack' whenever the hell he wanted, with his mastery over his ice bloodline, the main elements, the foxy bits, and any other hidden bloodlines he may still hold. He could have his own damn harem if he just asked the council to supply him with the women, though that thought made the boys stomach turn. Turning himself into breeding stock was not the most pleasant idea he'd had that day...

Above and to the right were Shikamaru and Choji, the brains and the muscle. They were awesome people to hang with and it only helped him along when he realized that old Shika was a freaking GENIUS, the fact the guy had an IQ over 200 was just scary, but you couldn't find a better challenge at Shogi or Go in the village, he still hadn't beaten him once...in four years.

Near the back of the class on his row was Shino who...was just Shino, the guy gave him the creeps, but he was a smart person to hold a conversation with when he did open his mouth for more than a few casual words.

Cerulean eyes fell on the one thing in the room that Naruto couldn't come to terms with...Hinata.

The girl was a mystery to him. She followed him at a distance everywhere, it wasn't like he really minded her watching him from afar, she never did look at him with animosity or hate, just a quiet acceptance and reverence. He had come to appreciate the quiet girls gaze as it was a strangely relaxing feeling knowing someone was watching you with a positive attitude. The big problem however was getting the girl to talk to him, in four years she hadn't said more than maybe a couple dozen words to him and any time he tried to talk to her she had just blushed a very dark shade of red and passed out, again something he'd have to figure out and tackle at a later date.

Right now was game time, the end of the school year, the make it or break it of the academy. Iruka was handing out several written tests to the class _'Boooooring' _the blonde mentally droned, he had no problem doing the written work, he just had too much pent up energy at the moment. He was a man of ACTION damn it.

After the written test was the practicals, basically a grade on standard academy taijutsu and using ninja tools, He was decent at the academy style but he preferred a variant that tossed in Anko's style. His hit rate for kunai and shuriken was 8 out of 10, not bad but not good either. After that was the final part of the test, the basic three, Bunshin, Kawarimi, and Henge. To Naruto, this part was the most important, he hadn't really mastered any of the basic three regardless of the fact that they were the foundation of all the ninja techniques beyond, He knew Kage bunshin so the clone part of the test was in the bag, his transformation wasn't that bad, in fact with his Sexy Jutsu he was actually damn good at it, his replacement was decent, nothing to write home about but still a passing grade.

All in all he had this in the bag and thanks to a small incident involving a certain white haired chunin he didn't have to worry about anyone screwing with his test score. Yeah, good old Mizuki-teme had fucked up before the graduation test ever started. He'd noticed Mizuki acting a bit on edge and staring at a few of the failing students with really bad grades, you know, the disposable kind. Well acting shifty in a village of ninja may be par for the course but doing that while teaching a class of students that have a majority of the clan heirs in said class and you have a very big problem, one word to Sarutobi and a squad of Anbu were tailing Mizuki's ass. The bastard was caught red handed when he was pulling a kid aside to have him steal the Forbidden scroll of sealing, after that, they threw his ass to Ibiki and found out he had been sabotaging the entire class in one way or another for years, a serious crime in its own right but there were several 'other' dark and dirty secrets that all but damned Mizuki to a life in prison.

"Uzumaki, Naruto get down here" Iruka's voice cut into his musing. "Come on Naruto, it's your turn, or do you want me to fail you?"

"Alright, alright. Geez you'd think you'd think the Kyubi rose from the grave or something..." Naruto stole a small glance at Iruka's pale white face and snickered quietly, Kami he loved doing that. Iruka was a nice guy if a bit gullible. "Ok what's my score of awesome on a scale of one to ten?" teeth glimmered as his grin took up his whole face

"Ha ha very funny." Iruka deadpanned "And if you must know, three." Oh he bust a gut when Naruto's grin turned into a deep frown, he had definitely gotten under the blondes skin with that one.

"You're gonna pay for that one Iruka-sensei, ok clone, replacement and transformation, right?" A nod of conformation. "Ok lets do this!" In a one handed handseal he summoned 5 Kage Bunshins, in a puff of smoke two of them were transformed into Iruka and Mizuki, the other two transformed into large Katana's, the two human clones grabbed the katana clones and rushed each other, in a flurry of stabs and slashes the two dueled. A thrust by clone Iruka was diverted to the side and a follow up by Clone Mizuki who cut down the length of the scarred chunin's blade, it would have taken Clone Iruka's head off had he not brought the guard of his blade up and raised the attack harmlessly overhead, to keep from getting slashed on the downward cut Clone Mizuki crouched down and took one hand off of his blade and with a yell he lanced his fist out and landed a blow into clone Iruka's sternum when he raised his blade to strike clone Mizuki, causing him to dispel. Or so he thought as a sword ripped through clone Mizuki's shoulder, dispelling him to reveal that clone Iruka had replaced itself with the fifth Naruto who had crept up behind clone Mizuki to blindsided him. Another cloud of smoke signaled the clones dispelling, leaving an astonished class and Iruka to stare at the blonde maverick, who just so happened to be fiddling with his ninja-to. "So do I pass?" he grinned mischievously.

Iruka could only nod dumbly at him, the whole duel between his clone self and the Mizuki clone took only a couple of seconds but the sword play was impressive, hell _he_ couldn't move as fast as those clones had, he threw a glance at Naruto for a second "Those were shadow clones weren't they?"

"Yep, gotta love em, one of the most useful Jutsu ever" his grin hadn't left his face.

"Well, it's not the academy Bunshin, but it is an advanced bunshin and it is acceptable in this case, congratulations Naruto, you pass" he flashed him a warm smile, _'Naruto's come a long way, heh, only a few years ago I saw him as nothing more than the fox in human skin, but just look at him, no demon could ever be this goofy, I just hope he can handle the world outside the village the way he handles himself here...Oh who am I kidding, he doesn't need to prepare for the world, the world needs to prepare for him!' _ his thoughts were filled with praise for the boy in front of him. It was truely inspiring to see how much he had grown both physically and mentally these last four years.

He tossed Naruto his Hitai-ate who immediately tied it around his head as he took his seat at the back of the class. "Alright Class, that's it for today's test, those of you who passed come back tomorrow to meet your new sensei and find out your team placements, for those of you who failed there is always next year so keep practicing, dismissed." He turned and walked out of the classroom.

_**-The next Day-**_

Anko stood in front of her mirror, trying on several new dresses she had bought over the weekend, she wanted to take Naruto out after he graduated and passed the real genin test. After all she had spent five years with the boy and their relationship hadn't really gone anywhere, sure there was the occasional kiss and they did pretty much everything with each other, bathing, eating, even shopping. Hell they could be called a married couple in everything but having sex, which Naruto made clear the year before when she had innitiated a bit of a dirty bubble bath, that they would wait till he was a bit older to do that sort of thing.

That didn't stop Anko from teasing and corrupting the boy as much as she could, much to his everpresent annoyance, but she didn't care, he was fun to be around with and thats all that really mattered to her, hell even the threat the council threw at them every year or so about multiple wives or having children didn't phase her, in fact they had a conversation just a few months ago that if he ever found someone else to share with that she would support him in his choice, it's not like she minded really... more fun for her in her mind. She flashed a feral grin. A little known secret to only a select few women that had known her before her marriage was that Anko was bisexual, and she had no problem with a Ménage à trois, in fact on several occasions she even promoted it. If Naruto ever did find another wife to marry... The feral grin never left her face as pervy thoughts floated through the snake mistress' mind while she tried on another dress, this one more mesh then fabric...

_**-ooo-**_

"UGGHHH, SO BOOORED!" Our blonde haired hero moaned in anguish, it had been an hour and a half since the last of the teams had left, he looked at the only other two people in the room...his 'teammates' the ever broody Sasuke and his pink haired Chia pet Sakura. He had tried to start up a conversation with them but Sasuke had blew him off because he was in one of his 'moods' honestly you'd think he was on the rag... _'Ugh, note to self, tell the Narrator to shut the fuck up about FemSasuke'_ ... fourth wall breaking aside, he really was bored out of his gourd, looking around one more time he finally sighed and stood up.

The Uchiha noticed the movement out of the corner of his eye "Yo, Dobe, what are you doing?"

"I'm bored" he remarked dryly, as he started doing one handed pushups "If we're going to be sitting here for hours on end we might as well do something productive while we wait."

He raised an eyebrow, "And what exactly ARE you doing?"

"What's it look like Teme? I'm training, I'd rather my muscles not atrophy while we wait." finishing a set on one side he switched to the other "If you want I can show you a few tricks to getting a good workout, what do you say?"

Sasuke looked around for a moment before sighing, he'd never admit it but Naruto was right, it WAS boring as HELL in this place. "Alright" he stood up and walked over to Naruto "What kind of training is this?"

Naruto sat up for a moment, and looked around, he noticed a small stack of flash cards under Iruka's desk, "Alright here's what you do, he grabbed a couple slips and handed one to Sasuke, "First off, I'll explain the chakra part of this exercise, simply, use your chakra to stick that piece of paper to your forehead like this" he reached up and placed the paper on his brow and like a piece of tape it stuck "Once you get this part, start doing physical exercises, I find that pushups and sit ups get the best results out of this. Not only are you working your chakra reserves with the paper but when you're concentrating on keeping the paper on and doing the exercises it'll increase your control as well, not to mention you're still getting a workout, a workout thats that much harder since you are using chakra while you're exercising."

Sasuke looked at the paper in his hand for a moment, shrugged and stuck it to his head, it didn't stick as well as he had wanted it too but it stayed, he sat down and started doing crunches, sweat beading his brow.

Sakura was watching her crush work out with a blush on her face, he was just so sexy.

Naruto rolled his eyes, he knew EXACTLY what she was day dreaming about and it sickened him to no end, sure Sakura was hot but Anko had beaten an ever present fear of fangirls into him, to him fangirls were scum, lower than dirt, and to hell if he was going to have one on his team if he had anything to say about it "Sakura!" he yelled, snapping her out of her Sasuke induced trance "You going to join us?"

"Why should I?" she bit back"

"Well for one thing, you're weak "He deadpanned dryly.

"Naruto you _jerk_! I am not weak!"

"Yeah you are and quit lying to yourself about it, out of the entire class you have the worst physical ability, Ino has better taijutsu skills than you, hell SHIKAMARU has better taijutsu than you and he's one of the laziest people I know"

Sakura shook in anger, tears welling in her eyes, she was about to run from the room when Naruto stopped her.

"BUT, that's why I'm trying to help you Sakura" he tossed her one of the slips, "Just doing this exercise over a period of a month almost doubled my chakra control and it increased my strength by a fifth, multi-tasking is an essential in battle and being able to concentrate on your physical attacks while you're unconsciously controlling your chakra is beyond helpful, that's why I turn my entire day into one big exercise, even when I'm relaxing I'm still doing something to better myself, after we get done today with our sensei you should look into it too. Using weights, going the long way to your destination, sticking leaves or other light stuff to your body with chakra throughout the day, stuff like this is great training for a good ninja."

Clapping filled the air around them, the three genin turned to the sound to see a silver haired masked man standing in the doorway "Heh, I was gonna say my first impressions of you three was 'I hate you' but it seems I have someone fairly competent on my squad, spiky over there has it right, that's a great exercise. You got 30 minutes, after you're finished training meet me on the roof." he then disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

"Well that was interesting" Naruto sweatdropped.

_**-30 minutes later-**_

"Naruto...that sucked..." the only girl there bitched "My muscles are already sore"

"That's because you were using chakra at the same time as you exercised, thus you couldn't use chakra to do most of the work your muscles _should_ be doing, so all that effort was placed on your muscles alone, which in turn increases the effects of the work out." Naruto pointed out as they reached the roof

"It still sucked..." she huffed, Naruto just palmed his face in irritation.

"Yo!" the Silver haired Jonin hailed them from the edge of the roof "Alright, now that you're all up here, I think it's time we introduced ourselves, give your likes/dislikess, dreams for the future and some hobbies, here I'll start. My Name is Kakashi Hatake, I have many likes and dislikes, I don't know you well enough to tell you my dreams for the future and I have hobbies." he nodded to them.

"Well that was informative" Naruto remarked dryly.

"Yeah all we got was his name" Sakura agreed.

Kakashi looked bored "Doesn't matter, you first" he pointed to Naruto.

"Well, I'm Naruto Uzumaki, I Like training, ramen and proving myself, my dream..." Naruto's face darkened a second "Actually no, not a dream, my _goal_ is to restore the Uzumaki clan and become a better Hokage than any thats come before me so that the people of this village can look up to me as a true shinobi."

Kakashi stared at him a moment _'Well isn't that interesting...'_ he nodded "Hobbies?"

"Um, well besides pranks and practical jokes...?" Kakashi sweatdropped

"Yeah I saw your handiwork the other day, painting the Hokage monument in broad daylight and nobody noticed you till you were done, how exactly did you pull that off?"

Naruto laughed "Sorry sensei, a good magician never reveals his secrets"

Kakashi eye smiled at him "Oho Mr Magic, and how many ANBU chased you around town after that little stunt?"

"Heh, 2 teams of ANBU, 11 Chunin and 4 Jonin" he had his hands behind his head with a shit eating grin on his face, Sakura and Sasuke just stared blankly at him.

"What the hell Dobe?" Sasuke said, dumbfounded.

Naruto looked at him "Hm, you say something?" the three Genin turned after hearing a crash to see Kakashi face first on the floor.

_'Am I already rubbing off on them?' _Kakashi wondered, face still firmly planted on the ground. After removing said face from said floor, he pointed at Sakura. "Ok bubblegum, you're next"

Sakura glared at him "Sakura Haruno, My dreams are..."She glanced quickly at Sasuke, "My hobbies are..." again at Sasuke "I like Sasuke and I HATE Naruto!"

Naruto sighed, out of all the kids in the academy he was stuck with broody and the beast.

_'Well isn't she shallow?' _Kakashi thought blandly "Ok duck head, you're next."

"Hah! I knew other people thought that about your hair." guess who said that.

Sakura glared at Naruto and Sasuke scowled "Sasuke Uchiha, I hate alot of things and I like few, I don't see why we are talking about dreams since Naruto has it right for once. I don't have a dream, I have a '_goal_.' My goal is to restore my clan and its honor, and to KILL a certain someone." An eriee silence filled the air as Naruto and Sakura inched back a few hairs from the Ki Sasuke was giving off.

"Dare I ask about your hobbies?" Kakashi wondered dryly, ignoring the Ki.

"Training, brooding and knitting."

Kakashi choked. "What was that last one?" he asked quickly.

"Knitting" Sasuke replied with a straight face. Kakashi suppressed the need to giggle like a schoolgirl, if Sasuke's parents knew his hobby they'd be rolling over in their graves, just thinking of Fugaku catching his son knitting made him choke and his mother Mikoto would have made him her little princess like she did Itachi... After a few seconds of inner conflict on whether or not to fall over in fits of giggles or just to point and laugh, he thankfully did neither and opted to file it away under 'blackmail' for later use

"OK now that we understand each other, I want you to meet me at training ground 3 tomorrow at 7am for survival exercises, oh and don't eat anything, or else you're gonna throw up." he chuckled a little before he shunshin'd away.

"And like that he leaves us with nothing to go on, GREATEST SENSEI EVAR!" Naruto palmed his face with a tick mark showing prominently. "Whatever. Alright ignore the last thing he said and eat tonight and in the morning, Ok?"

The other two looked at him like he was stupid or something.

"But sensei just told us not to eat, why would we break the rules like that?" Sakura rubbed her legs together nervously.

"Two things. One, tomorrow is most likely NOT going to be a survival exercise, it's probably gonna be a test on teamwork, hell why would they go through all the trouble of sticking us on teams and preaching about teamwork all throughout the academy if it wasn't about teamwork?" The looks on their faces told him they hadn't thought of that "Two, since he directly told us not to eat anything while taking into account that he's probably going to be pitting us against each other tomorrow its safe to say that he's going to try and turn our tempers on each other to test our teamwork and resolve, after all, starving and desperate ninja a good team do not make. So eat something, it doesn't have to be much, just enough so we don't kill each other tomorrow out of hunger and stress."

They both nod, if anything they could just blame Naruto if things went south, so with that and a few goodbye's team 7 headed home for the night.

_**-ooo-**_

_'Ugh today sucked' _Naruto groaned mentally _'I wonder what Kakashi will have us do tomorrow. If I know Sasuke and Sakura they probably wont eat anything, so just in case bring an apple for both of them or something. Sigh, so much to do tomorrow, might as well get some sleep while I can' _ As Naruto nodded off he felt a slight tug on his conscious _'Sigh, this better be good Kyuubi'_ He opened his eyes and he was again in that familiar sewer, seriously he needed to clean this place out. He turned to stare at the beast behind the cage waiting for it t speak.

kyuubi looked down at him with a small grin on it's face. **"Hello monkey, I see you graduated today from that pathetic excuse you call an academy."**

"Yeah yeah yuck it up furball, I'm on my way to becoming Hokage and ain't nothing gonna stop me now. So what did you need me for?"

**"*Sigh*, Honestly? It's kind of lonely in here, it's been more than a year since you've even come in here, there's nothing to do except sleep and torment you, and seeing as you don't torment easily It's gotten rather boring in here..."**

"Well sorry if my head doesn't match to standards, suck it up, you're a man, take the pain like the rest of us." Naruto was about to make another smart comment when a large amount of killing intent flooded the room, he snapped his head towards Kyuubi and stared into it's eyes, there was a mixture of anger and ...hurt in them, what the fuck?

Kyuubi grit it's teeth in anger glaring holes into Naruto **"That's just it you stupid MONKEY, I am not a male!"**

"Wait...WHAT!" The blondes eyes flew wide in shock. "You're a GIRL?"

The fox facepalmed...somehow... and spoke evenly** "Yes I am a female, A GIRL. How do you not notice these things?"**

He looked a bit sheepish "Well I just assumed, with such a deep voice and all..."

A tick mark formed on her head.** "I'm 100 times your size mortal, my vocal cords are much larger than yours. If I was your size or you mine we'd sound the same as the other."**

Naruto looked thoughtful for a moment before a look of disgust crossed his face. "But that means...Ugh gross..."

**"W-what?" **The vixen tilted her head curiously.

"I was going to say it must suck having your junk soaked in this sewer all day long, but now that I know you're a girl that must suck even more" he scrunched his nose in disgust.

**"Now you know why I don't like you that much, your mind is filthy, figuratively speaking..."**

"Well what do you want me to do? It's not like I can remove all this water, and I sure as hell ain't removing that seal."

**"Well you could...what?" **The fox looked around its cage...it's significantly drier cage **"How...?" **She wondered in astonishment. **"What did you do?"**

Naruto turned back to the entrance of the room, noting the receding water "Huh...I guess I just thought of it drying out and it must have done it."

**"You fool, a mindscape doesn't work like that , I told you as much the first time we met, a mindscape is a representation of ones own current mental state along with past experiences, If you're sad, it rains. Happy, its sunny. Depressed, its foggy or dank like this sewer."** the fox gestured with one of her clawed hands **"This is direct control over ones mindscape, only people who are true masters of the mind like those Yamanaka monkey's can do something like this, "**

Naruto tilted his head curiously "So you're saying that I can directly change anything I want in my mind?"

**"In essence, yes. This may be another bloodline of some sort that you absorbed that day, or maybe it mutated from something you absorbed, whatever it is, it's interesting to say the least. You got rid of the water here and that's a welcome change for me at the very least, maybe now my fir might finally dry out..."**

Naruto stared at Kyubi for a moment, looking around the dank musty room in thought, _'This place is a disgrace.'_ he noted dryly, he looked back at kyubi, who seemed to be enjoying the drier cage immensely. _'And she's loving just having a dry place to sleep. Kami, now I feel like such a bastard for keeping her in this damn place...Wait! That's it!' _ He cupped his hands and yelled up at the vixen "Oi, Kyuubi-chan"

The fox growled in anger at being addressed as such **"What mortal?"**

"You don't like this sewer do you?"

She glared at him dryly **"I'd think that would be obvious, who in their right mind would enjoy living in a place like this?"**

Naruto sweatdropped "Point taken. Well then, let's see how this works." Naruto scrunched his eyes in concentration, focusing on something, slowly the walls of the room seemed to expand and disappear, leaving a bright white light in its place, trees shot up from the floor their leaves sprouting from nothing. The sound of songbirds filled the air along with the sounds of wind blowing through a forest. After the transformation was complete, Naruto opened his eyes to look at his work. It was the forests outside Konoha, he had even recreated the city in the distance. He turned to the fox who was sitting outside of the cage for once, however, there was a tattoo on its chest in the kanji for 'seal' "So how's this? That better for your fir?"

The fox's jaw dropped to the floor **"H-how? How in the hell did you create something this detailed so quickly?"**

"Heh, this is the part of the forest I see every time I sit on the Hokage monument, I just imagined the trees and kinda put the village in the distance, so...What do you think?"

Fir bristled in the breeze as Kyuubi stretched out her limbs **"What are your views on interspecies relationships?"**

"Huh...Why do you...?"

Kyubi's face stretched into a playful grin as a giant puff of smoke filled the area.

"Ooof" the blonde gasped as the air got knocked out of him. He landed on his back in a heap with something heavy on his chest, as his head stopped spinning from smacking the ground he happened to glance at the heavy thing in question only to freeze as he noticed that same playful smirk above him...only smaller and more human...and hotter...wait...what?

**"That's why"** sharpened canines flashed in the sunlight as Kyuubi let out an ear to ear grin, she had transformed herself into a human, or rough equivalent to it, the foxy attributes that she shared with Naruto were a dead give away that she was a little more foxy that what her beauty suggested. Her face shined in the morning light, her seductive eyes framing her face as it trailed down a rather cute nose to full luscious lips.

She wore a full length burnt orange kimono with spiral designs, The Kimono itself was opened in the front to reveal a rather large chest on which the same tattoo for 'seal' stood out on her snow white skin. Her eyes were red and slitted like normal and her hair was a dull rusty orange as well as her tails, all nine of them which splayed out behind her in a fan shape, each flicking independently.

**"You have no idea how long I've wanted out of that fucking cage. 12 years. 12 fucking years sitting in that sewer of a mindscape looking at nothing but dark, pipe covered wall's. Thank you kit, I know we may have started off on the wrong foot but doing this has seriously raised you a few notches in my book, I just might not kill your loved ones now."** she smiled again, despite the fact that she had just threatened to kill his loved ones...at least indirectly...

Naruto sweatdropped "Yeah...ok" he looked up at Kyuubi who was still straddling his chest. "Well, this is awkward..."

Kyuubi blinked a couple times before she fell over laughing **"Pfft hahahaha, kit, you are so innocent its not even funny"** She tossed him a sexy smirk and ground herself on his chest a bit for effect. "**Don't you like this form?"**

"A little too much actually, could you get off me, you're kind of crushing me." he gasped a few times to get his point across.

**"Booo, you're no fun" **She pouted playfully before that smirk took its place back on her face **"But you are interesting, you actually care about my well being, you're the first person to do that for me, most are either too scared of me or are using their powers and just lording over me. You're the first to actually treat me like an equal."**

Naruto blinked once "What? have you never had a friend before?"

**"A friend?" ** she put a finger to her chin in thought. **"Can't say that I have, the two containers I had before were complete bitches to me."** she pouted again, this time in anger.

Naruto's eyes flew wide "Wait, there's been Kyuubi Jinchuriki before me?" his voice squeaked a little "When? Who?"

**"Well obviously 12 years ago since that's when I was released from the last container, and roughly 20 odd years before that for the other container, that container held me for several decades actually before she passed me on to your predecessor."**

"You said 'bitches.' So are you saying the two containers before me were female?"

Kyuubi looked lost in thought for a moment, seeming at war with herself on how she should answer his question, after a moment of thought she nodded once **"Yes Naruto, my last two containers were female, they were Mito Uzumaki, one of your distant relatives and wife to the First Hokage..."**

Naruto on the other hand was wide eyed, he had just discovered the name of one of his relatives, he knew she couldn't be alive if she was the wife of the Shodaime Hokage but still, it was a start. "And the other...?" he asked tentatively

Kyuubi looked into Naruto's eyes, there was a pleading there, a want to know about the others before him, but this... this was going to be difficult to explain. **"My last container was your mother kit...Kushina Uzumaki..."**

The Kyuubi Jinchuriki stood deathly still as his hair shadowed his eyes, ever so slightly he started to tremble. It wasn't noticeable at first but as it grew you could tell he was crying. He curled up into a little ball at the base of a tree and sobbed, the tears on his cheeks forming twin trails of moisture down his face.

Kyuubi stared at the boy's whimpering form, his sobs echoing loudly around the empty forest. She sighed and gently wrapped her arms around the blonde.

Naruto went rigid when he felt the contact "Wha?" he tried to choke out.

**"Just shut up kit" **she said softly **"I may be a demon but I'm not heartless. Everyone seems to think we Biju are nothing but evil monsters."** she gripped him a little tighter.** "To be perfectly honest most of us aren't even evil. Sure, we're sadistic and like to fuck with people, our containers even more so...but we're not heartless"** she rubbed the boys back soothingly as his tears soaked her kimono. **"So why are you crying Kit? I know finding out about your mother this way was a bit unexpected but still..."**

"That's...not it..." he cried.

**"Then what is it?"**

long tears streamed down his cheeks "I'm just...so happy...yet so sad... I can't help it."

She blinked a couple times at that. **"What?"**

"I'm happy about knowing about my mother but I know she must have suffered as much as I did. And just knowing that dad loved her enough to have me makes me happy as well but I'm also sad that I'll never know more then her name and maybe her face if there are any pictures of them left."

Kyuubi made a soft sound of understanding as she held the boy, rubbing his back gently to calm him down **"Kit, your mother wasn't treated the way people treat you, no one really knew she held me inside of her, not to mention I hadn't attacked the village yet so even if they did know, it wasn't as much of a stigma as it is now, hell back then people could have just called it an unstable bloodline and wouldn't have given it another thought."**

Naruto smiled bitterly at that "At least she had a better life then I've had so far."

she chuckled** "We're both having a hard time of it, I'll try and figure something out on knowing who they were don't worry about that too much."**

"Huh? Why would you do that?"

Kyuubi sighed **"Because I'm actually sorry about what has happened to you, I never meant to attack your village, after being trapped inside of Mito and your mother for so long I really didn't want to have anything to do with Konoha anymore."**

The tears in Naruto's eyes had dried by now as he looked at her confused "So why did you attack then?"

Kyubi's face hardened in anger **"It was all because of that man..." **She growled, the vibrations in her chest made Naruto shake.

"What man?" he frowned a sinking feeling filled his stomach.

**"The man who is directly responsible for my attack on your village, and the deaths of your mother and father" **She replied darkly, her voice trailing off as she remembered the day.

Naruto's voice was quiet for a moment before he spoke two simple words.

"Tell me."

**-ooo-**

**A/N WELL NOW, that was a long chapter, I just kept writing and writing, before I knew it, THIS happened. OH well, more enjoyment for you, the readers. Till next time. Peace.**

**OH almost forgot, don't worry about the whole FemKyuubi thing, she ISN'T gonna be a love interest, she's just doing that to fuck with Naruto's head, also the whole sappy moment with her isn't gonna happen often if ever again, so she'll be back to her sarcastic attitude next chapter, this was just a moment of weakness or whatever you want to call it cuz she's grateful to be out of that cage.  
**


	7. Chapter 7

**OK Next chapter up!**

**Now I've been told that many people have been updating stories with notes on todays 'fuck up' aka the deletion of stories on , and the idiotic heavyhandedness of the admins on the site. And that they can possibly delete the story since doing that is actually a vilation of the Tos.**

**Now I got a review that was anon saying why am I bitching about this? and why did I join the petition when the admins have every right to do this...Well let me list a 3 very clear reasons.**

**Reason 1.(Big reason too) WE. ARE. THIS. SITE. We are the things keeping this site going. To put it simply we are the producers and consumers of this service, they provide the means to do both, a middle man if you will. If they make all their producers angry and make the consumers not want to 'consume' then that s pretty much the END of this site.**

**Reason 2. I'm not saying the admins are not outside their rights to do this. HOWEVER, the way they are doing it is WRONG. They have not upheld their ToS for the past 10 years, and yet they spring this with no word or warning, it's a scandal if ever there was one, quoting a user by the name of Biskoff **

_"Its like putting up a speed limit and then not giving anyone a ticket. Then a decade later, they enforce the law and the punishment is the death sentence. We were not given a warning or offered a middle ground, and even if what they are doing is legal and within their rights, it is still wrong to do."_

**If they really cared about their users They'd implement something that allowed all forms of written expression, it's not hard honestly, I've written code for something like that several times, It's been awhile since I did it but it's not impossible, just set up an age based account system, a disclaimer to dodge responsibility and add an MA rating, thats about it, everything else is up to the parents to handle, and if they don't it's on their heads not the admins.**

**Reason 3. Technically I'm not mad at them deleting the dirty stuff on here, its the fact that they are deleting stories that have nothing to do with dirty stuff, but violence, on a site that has, at least a dozen of the bloodiest and violent anime/manga games and books that I know of, how the heck are they moderating that? They aren't that's what. They're using spiders to look for key words and just cut and paste deleting them. that isn't the way to moderate.  
**

**Thank you for bearing with my rant, it's just something that got in my head and bugged me for the entire day, NOW on to the story.**

**Disclaimer Don't own Naruto, I'd try to win it in a poker game If I could just get in touch with kishi, sadly he won't return my phone calls...**

**-ooo-**

"speech"

_'Thoughts'_

**"Kyubi speech"**

_**'Kyubi thoughts'**_

Jutsu

_**Chapter 7: Bell test blues.**_

_'An Orange spiral mask and a Sharingan eye, the face of my enemy."_ Naruto brooded over this information as he walked towards training ground 3. Kyuubi had told him everything, how she had been controlled with a Sharingan to attack the village, even the last moments of his parents. He didn't blame Kyuubi, hell he'd be pretty pissed too if he had been trapped against his will inside someone or another for close to 60+ years with a very likely chance of getting sealed back inside someone ELSE by those same people. And from what he understood his mom had whipped Kyuubi HARD, the fact Kyuubi called it 'rough bondage' didn't help either...he'd never look at chains the same way again...

Disturbing thoughts aside, He felt GOOD today. Today he could finally cut loose against someone and a Jonin someone at that, '_lucky, lucky_.' The only problem to his plans were the added baggage of Broody and the Beast. The test was teamwork and their teamwork for lack of a better term, was shit. The Uchiha prodigy was a pompous ass and tried to do everything himself. Sakura on the other hand was the exact opposite of Sasuke, she was fiery yes, but she tended to only be firey towards Sasuke, or when she compared her fist density to the hardness of his head...brain injury aside when Sasuke wasn't around she could be introverted and quiet, hell maybe even willing to work together but once pompous ass met ass kisser it would take a miracle to get them to work correctly together.

_'Oh well' _he sighed dejectedly, _'Might as well at least try to work with them, maybe the impossible will happen' _With that thought he walked onto the worn field of training ground 3, he noticed immediately that Sakura and Sasuke were already there, Sasuke was sitting silently under the shade of a tree while Sakura was leaning against one of the three stumps in the middle of the training ground.

Sakura stared at Naruto with a frown planted firmly on her face "You're late Naruto."

"Yeah and so is Sensei, did either of you eat anything?" he watched as both slowly nodded apprehensively, after all if they were in trouble, now was the time for Kakashi to punish them for it. After a good thirty minutes of waiting the three knew that Kakashi wasn't testing their adherence to the rules and was genuinely late...again. Naruto who expected Kakashi's tardiness after he told Anko about who his new 'Sensei' was...it wasn't like she HAD to laugh so hard...but it did tip him off that the guy was a joke, the little quip Anko made about being late for his own funeral didn't reassure him either.

After another hour Naruto was starting to twitch "Well, I'm tired of waiting for him" He turned to his two would be teammates questioningly" Would either of you like to train while we wait?" Neither moved from their positions, both were clearly on edge. Naruto shrugged "Fine, more for me, Kage Bunshin no jutsu!"  Instantly 5 naruto clones appeared in front of him, "Alright guys you know the drill" he tossed a scroll to the clones and they ran off into the woods to train."

"Yo dobe what the hell kind of clone was that, I saw you use them during the graduation exam but what are they?"

"They're kage bunshin Sasuke, 'Shadow Clones' hella useful but the drain they put on your chakra reserves is massive. If I were to estimate, you could probably only make 10 or so before you fell to the ground dead."

"Then how did you make 5 of them?"

He shrugged "Simple, I have more chakra than you do, alot more actually, most likely more than our Jonin sensei in fact. My fox bloodline increases the amount of chakra I have by massive amounts, more than a Kage's if what people tell me is correct. Only downside to this bloodline is my chakra control is complete shit, those clones right there, I put enough chakra into them to make 10 clones, before I got my control up it would have been 50 or more."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow "So your bloodline doesn't really have any permanent weaknesses, does it?"

Naruto stuck a finger to his chin in thought, he pulled his cap off exposing the ears to the air, "Well to be honest I don't think I do, besides really loud noises...these ears are fairly decent for hearing over large distances" he yanked the tail from his pants "For the tail...I don't know, it really doesn't do anything more than increase my balance, I could probably find a use for it for something..."

"Have you ever tried holding something with it?" Sakura questioned

"No, why?"

She walked over beside him and pulled out a Kunai "Here try and hold this."

Naruto turned to look at the blade in her hand and mentally willed hs tail to reach out for it, after a few failed attempts he sighed in frustration "Nothing, it just doesn't have the control necessary."

Sasuke stared at the half assed attempts by Naruto's appendage "Why don't you try running chakra through it dobe?" the two ninja turned to stare at him, he pointed at the tail in thought "I use wires all the time and running chakra through them makes the things easier to control, I imagine that tail would work the same way.

Naruto looked back down in thought at his tail, he tested a bit of chakra going to the tip of the tail, instantly the fur stood up on end and his entire body jolted, sending waves of electricity up his spine, "Holy shit." he stopped the flow of chakra and stared "The fuck was that?"

"What happened?" Sakura knelt down to where the tail was eye level, she was giving it that 'fangirl squee' look but there was genuine concern in her eyes so Naruto wasn't gonna run for the hills _just_ yet.

"I don't know, it just started shocking me"

"Try putting less chakra into it then, maybe you just forced too much in and it hurt you."

Naruto nodded to the pinkette and slowly forced a smaller amount of chakra in, it still tingled but not nearly as bad, once it reached the tip the oddest thing happened, the tail went completely slack. Naruto raised an eyebrow, "The hell?"

"What happened?" the pinkette asked

He scratched his head "I have no clue, this thing reacts to chakra in a weird way, I think I need to train with this thing for awhile, maybe I can use it" with a handsign a dozen clones were in a line in front of him, "Alright, go test this thing out" he grabbed his tail and shook it at the clones "I want results by the end of the day."

"Oui Mon Capitan!" They turned and ran off into the woods.

Sakura sweatdropped "What is wrong with your clones?"

Naruto sighed comicly "Some things are better left unsaid..."

"Riiight..."

The three genin sat quietly for another 30 minutes until a cheerful voice filled the clearing

"Yo." Kakashi hailed them, he glanced over at Naruto and nearly fell over, he still had his tail and ears out for all to see and this was a first for Kakashi seeing them. _'Hmm interesting, I knew he had them but it's just odd seeing things like that poking out of people, this may take some time to get used too...'_

"You're late!" Sakura growled out. Surprisingly Naruto kept quiet.

"Well" Kakashi began "I got lost on the road of life"

"Liar!" the pinkette fumed.

"Actually" Naruto interrupted "I believe him" Kakashi eye smiled at that "After all it's not everyday someone gets laid." The eye smile widened in shock.

"Wha?" the Jonin choked out.

Naruto tossed Kakashi a book "Here, for the next time you get lost on the road of life."

Kakashi knew what it was the moment it left the blondes hand, the orange cover gave it away almost instantly, but what shocked kakashi the most was that he had never seen this cover before, which could only mean one thing, it was a new Icha-Icha volume! Kakashi slowly opened the cover and there in all its glory was the signature of the author, and in bold letters _'First...edition' _he looked at the boy in awe "How?" he said reverently.

"I have my ways" he grinned impishly _'Thank you Anko, that made a hell of a first impression.'_

Kakashi stood frozen for a moment before bending forward quickly in a deep bow, much to the shock of the other two genin there."You have my deepest gratitude Uzumaki-san!"

"Yeah, yeah create a shadow clone to go enshrine your book back home, you got a team to pass."

He looked up at the blonde _'So the brat know's its a test...interesting...' _ slowly he nodded once, a handsign and a puff of smoke later his clone and the book vanished in a shunshin. A second later Kakashi's poker face was back while his body regained its comfortable slouch.

"Ok then" The one-eyed jonin pulled out a clock and placed in on one of the stumps. "This here is a timer set to go off at noon" Two bells dangled from his fingers "You have until that time to take these bells from me, those who don't...get sent back to the academy!"

The Sasuke and Sakura were shocked. (Naruto not so much) Why would they get sent back to the academy if this was 'survival exercises?' Unless...

"But sensei there's only two bells..." Sakura piped in.

"Correct Sakura, that means even if you do get the bells from me one of you will be going back regardless. Out of the entire graduating class, only 9 of you will be advancing to become full fledged genin, this test has a 66% chance of failure and is used to root out the hopeless cases, so you better get the bells by lunch, or else... Also for a little added motivation, if you don't get the bells by lunch, _you_ won't get any lunch."

Sakura glared at Kakashi in thought _'So that's why he said not to eat, the bastard, and if he lied about that to get us weak and fight amongst ourselves then...' _She glanced at Sasuke who was looking at her as well, they both thought.

_'Naruto was right, this __**IS**__ a test of teamwork'_ they both glanced at Naruto who was watching the both of them intently, ever so slightly they nodded, a large grin crossed Naruto's face.

_'Heh, we might actually do this now'_ he turned back to Kakashi with that grin still plastered on his face.

Kakashi raised his only visible eyebrow '_What are you up to...?'_

"Sakura, Sasuke, you get it now right?" They both nodded. "Good, alright one-eye lets get this over with. I got places to go, women to meet, you know important stuff" he threw that impish grin from earlier at the cycloptic jonin.

Kakashi sweatdropped _'He's sooo getting a 'thousand years of death' for that one...' _he coughed to cover his loss of composure _"_Alright then, be prepared to come at me with intent to kill or you'll never get the bells. Begin!" in a burst of speed the three genin disappeared into the woods.

_**-ooo-**_

Across town outside a jewelry shop a young hyuuga heiress stood pouting, staring at a display case of engagement rings in the widow dreamily, she had passed by the shop thinking of a certain blonde haired boy when she noticed the rings, after a few more moments she sighed in despair _'As if Naruto-kun would ask me to marry him...what would he want with a plain girl like me?'_ she shook those thoughts from her head, she'd never given up on him in the four years she's tried to be close to him, watching him grow into the person he is now. There was no way in hell she was just gonna let go of her feelings for him. She turned from the shop and marched off to one of her favorite spots in the village, simply because it was one of Naruto's favorite spots. The top of the Hokage monument...

_**-ooo-**_

_'What the fuck is with these kids!'_ Kakashi screamed in his mind as he dodged another barrage of kunai launched by a tripwire trap that had been set by the blonde maverick himself, in just a few minutes Naruto had booby trapped a large portion of the forest that he was now running for his life in. Not to mention every so often sasuke and sakura would launch sneak attacks from behind him, only years of experience kept him from getting seriously injured...or worse. _'One minute I'm chasing after Naruto, the next im tripping over myself in a forest of pointy doom!'_ how the kid had gotten ahold of so many kunai and explosive tags he'll never know. backing up he felt a tug on his foot and looked down quickly to notice another tripwire against his heel _'SHIT!'_ a set of explosions and kunai assaulted him from every direction which he narrowly dodged _'I know I said to 'come at me with intent to kill' but this is ridiculous!'_

Kakashi stopped for a moment to focus on the area around him and realized something odd, there was not a single sound around him. He leaned against a tree for a moment to get his bearings only for his eyes to go wide as ninja wire sprung up and wrapped around the tree, encircling him with near invisible wire, a sharp tug and the wires snapped taught, pinning him. Not a half moment after that, two shuriken flew through the air and struck his palms. "Gah!" pain shot through his arms as the bladed stars tore into his hands to prevent any use of jutsu. A shadow appeared beside the one eye'd jonin's head before darkness took him.

_**-1 hour later-**_

"You think we overdid it?" a girl's voice awakened the Jonin.

"Who cares, the dobe's plan was awesome." a gruff male voice who he pinpointed as Sasuke answered

"Heh, I never knew you cared Sasuke, nice work on the wires by the way, and the same with the shuriken Sakura" said the current bane of the jonin's existence.

_'ugh, trap-master bastard, ah hell I'm tied up' _he mentally groaned realizing he was tied to one of the training stumps of training ground 3. The irony of that wasn't lost on the cycloptic Jonin.

"I don't. You just had a good plan" retorted the uchiha to the blonde's taunting. "And thanks"

"No shit" The silver haired jonin groaned from the stump, a large black and blue welt on the visible side of his face right below his eye.

"Oh sensei you're awake!" Sakura giggled happily.

"What the hell hit me?" The jonin asked

"That would be the Uzumaki special" Said Uzumaki held up his left fist in front of his face and his eyes gleamed menacingly.

Kakashi sweatdropped, _'Taken down by a punch, ugh I'm never going to hear the end of this once this makes the rounds at the jonin lounge...should have used the sharingan from the beginning dammit...'_

"By the way sensei" Naruto held up both bells in his hand, "Mission complete" he handed one to Sasuke and one to Sakura and grinned proudly. "So do we pass or what?"

Kakashi hung his head in despair, he had no choice, not only did they use more teamwork than he'd ever seen a genin team use, they had beaten him as well. Hell they worked together like a well oiled chunin team, how that happened he'd never know but in a way he was proud to have them as his team if this was just a 'taste' of what they could do now "Yeah, you pass, I guess you figured out the meaning behind this test right?" They nodded. He sighed again "By the way, how in the hell did you lay all those traps that quickly Naruto? And how did you get your teammates to work so well with you?"

Naruto scratches his head in embarassment "Heh, as for the first one, Kage bunshin no jutsu!" the clearing was filled yet again with clones of naruto, but this time there was over 50 of them! "I can make dozens of shadow clones like its nothing, these guys were setting up traps while you were stumbling through the first ones I set."

Kakashi's face turned sour _'He makes it sound like I'm a complete novice.' _ his face straightened slightly "And the teamwork?"

"Simple, for Sakura I said I'd help her get the attention of Sasuke by helping her get stronger and keeping the other fangirls off of him. For Sasuke I said I'd help him get stronger as well as keeping a majority of his fangirls away."

"So you bribed them...?"

"Basically."

Kakashi sweatdropped again _'Why am I not surprised...?' _The ropes behind him snapped and he stood up, much to the surprise of the genin "Ok then, since you passed, meet me here tomorrow for mission assignments and team training, Naruto!"

Naruto jumped at Kakashi's raised voice "Uh...yeah?"

"Since you seem so adamant about helping your teammates get stronger, you'll be helping train them as well." Kakashi eyesmiled.

_'He's getting back at me isn't he?' _the blondes eyebrow twitched slightly in annoyance.

"Till tomorrow then, I have a make out date with an icepack..." a swirl of leaves signified his departure as the rest of team 7 left the training grounds, two of them heading home, the other heading to his most favorite spot in the village, The hokage monument...

_**-ooo-**_

Hinata Hyuuga sat silently watching the sun set in the west from the top of the Hokage monument, the wind blowing gently through the trees, the slow shaking of the branches creating a soothing soundtrack to the view.

"Oh Naruto..." she sighed, staring at the pale orange sunset in despair "Will I ever be able to catch your heart, will you ever notice me?" the Hyuuga heiress sighed again and looked longingly over the village "Just one moment is all I need to tell you, but I...I just can't say it. " Tears filled her pale eyes as a lump caught in her throught "Naruto...I...I..."

"Hinata?"

The Hyuuga's eye's went wide, she turned sharply to see the embodiment of her love standing not twenty feet away. "N-N-N-Naruto-kun, w-what are y-you doing h-here?" The pale eyed girls heart was about to tear a hole out of her chest, here he was the boy she had admired for years, the person who never gave up no matter how much hatred was thrown his way, the one who gave her courage and hope that she herself could overcome any obstacle, just standing there staring at her. It was almost too much for the girl.

Naruto watched Hinata intently, he could hear the girls heart beat faster and her breathing quickened, it was like she feared him, but the way she blushed and stuttered contradicted that, he had spent the past four years trying to understand what caused her to act this way around him, and so far he had no clue what the hell her problem was. Looking at her now, he felt this might be the only chance to figure it out, he had heard the last bit of what she was saying, she needed to tell him something but what it was she felt she couldn't say, now was the time to get her to say it. "Hinata." he said again, this time it wasn't a question, he walked closer to her and noticed that the girl broke out into a cold sweat as he approached.

_'He's walking towards me, what does he want?' _The girls thoughts were spinning around at a thousand miles an hour, so confused was she that she didn't even notice that he was standing right in front of her, his cerulean eyes gazing hard into her pale lavender ones. Her eyes widened "Eeep." she squeeked out trying to back away from him, but she only felt the edge of the monument at her back.

"Hinata, do you have something to say to me?" the tone of his voice offered no argument, "I heard you from before, you said you wanted to tell me something, what is it?" his eyes never left hers while hers widened in shock.

_'H-he heard me?' _at first she was happy that he had heard her words but then her stomach fell, he clearly hadn't heard the first part so he wouldn't know what she wanted to tell him, she'd have to do it now, or never...

"N-Naruto...I...I" She grit her teeth, and tried to force the words from her mouth but nothing came _'Dammit! just three words, three damn words, Say it, SAY IT!' _ She jerked when she felt a pair of hands on her shoulders.

"Hinata calm down and just tell me" he was close, too close and that was it. The Shy girl fainted under his touch, falling to the ground...only, the wasn't any ground below her, being on the edge of a cliff does that to you...

"HINATA!" he yelled and lept after her, "Shit shes falling too fast I wont be able to catch her and stop our fall, wait, thats it! Kage Bunshin no jutsu!" a dozen Naruto latched on to each other and grabbed the edge of the monument, the last one had a hold of Naruto's legs as he reached out for Hinata, a few more inches and he had his hands around her, "NOW" he screamed latching onto what he could of the girl.

"Right boss!" the clones jerked them to the side swinging them back towards the top of the mountain, they flew through the air flying towards the treeline, Naruto's eyes widened when he saw where they were landing. He turned and cradled her body in his, putting himself between the hard ground and her. With a loud smack he struck the stone of the monument before bouncing into the soft grass of the treeline, Hinata held tightly to his chest.

It took a few moments for the dust to settle but after it did a slight groan echoed out.

"Ughh, Hinata!" he shook the girl lightly trying to wake her "Hinata are you alright?" blood was coming from his arms and back, he could feel the burning in his limbs telling him he was hurt, but he could only care about the pale-eyed hyuuga heiress at the moment "Hinata! Please answer me."

The girl groaned weakly in his arms.

"Hinata!" his movements were frantic as he gently brushed her hair out of her eyes.

Slowly those lavender orbs did open, they were half lidded and dreamy looking. "Naruto-kun" she groaned out. The tone froze Naruto, it wasn't in a friendly tone...It was something deeper...something more along the lines of lust and desire. Needless to say it freaked him out.

"Hinata, are you alright?" he asked timidly.

Seemingly ignoring him she drew closer, eyes still hazy "Naruuto-kuun" she stressed, bringing her face closer and closer to his, making his eyes go wide.

"Wait Hin-" his protests were cut off when her lips met his, slowly ohhhh so very slowly her tongue slid gently along his lips. _'Oh Kami, where did she learn to kiss like that' _his eyes were wide with shock _'Wait, WHY is she kissing me like that?'_ his thoughts were broke off with the kiss as hinata pulled back, still in her own little world.

Hinata's eyes closed contentedly _'This is the best dream ever, I just wish this could be real life' _she thought quietly as she held, what she thought, was her imaginary crush. "My Naruto-Kun, I love you so much Naruto-kun" She laid her head on his chest. Naruto's eyes widened even more.

_'She...she loves me? Since WHEN?'_ he wondered, as he hesitantly wrapped his arms around her.

Hinata was content, even if this was a dream, she still wanted to hold Naruto, she listened to her Naruto-kun's heartbeat, feeling...his warmth...wait...'feeling...heartbeat.' Suddently her eyes weren't so hazy and her movements not so dreamy, she looked up into Naruto's face in shock, "N-N-Naruto...?" she whimpered.

"Y-Yeah?"

"T-t-this isn't a dream is it?" The pleading look in her eyes nearly broke his heart, it seemed like her whole world was crashing down around her.

"No, Hinata...It isn't." Her eyes widened as her face fell, her body slowly started shaking with barely controlled sobs.

He was surprised at her sudden tears. He could only watch as she cried in his arms. After what seemed like forever he couldn't take it anymore "Hinata." he called gently while lightly shaking her, which caused her to look him in the eyes. Slowly he reached out and cupped her face with his hands, and brought her face closer to his to return the kiss she gave him.

Her eyes, like his before, widened in shock. _'H-he...He's k-kissing me back...d-does that mean he l-likes me?'_ the girl could only go with the flow as their lips met in another tender embrace. Slowly as before the kiss broke, but this time with a smiling Naruto and a stunned hyuuga "N-Naruto-kun?"

"There we go, no more tears" He threw her his trademark grin.

A couple minutes of awkward silence filled the air as the two held eye contact with deep blue orbs staring into pale lavender ones. The two sat for a few seconds longer before Naruto broke the silence "Hinata, you care for me don't you? Like really care for me?" It was a simple question but the young girl could tell that it was something much deeper than just the question, like what she answered would be extremely important.

"Y-yes, I do N-Naruto-Kun. I've been w-watching you since the d-day we met, you always m-make me feel better when I'm around y-you." The girls stuttering was all too cute for the blonde boy, he chuckled lightly, before his face grew solemn.

"Hinata...I...I have to tell you something, something you may not like" the girls ears perked up at the tone of his voice, what could be so important that he'd sound so reserved like that? He sighed once "You remember what I told the class about how I have a bloodline?" She nodded "Well what I didn't tell any of you was I'm also the last member of two clans, my mother and father were both the last of their clans as well." The girl was slightly surprised that her Naruto-kun was that important but she nodded again to show she understood. "Well the...night I gained my bloodline I was taken before the council to discuss my fate, many of the council, especially the civilian council hated me. The reason they hate me Hinata...*sigh* You know the story of how the Yondaime defeated the Kyuubi right?" he was sweating a bit and apprehension filled his body, this was going to be difficult to say...

She nodded getting a sinking feeling in her stomach. "The Yondaime killed the Kyuubi on october 10th, the night of the attack"

"Only half right Hinata, Yes the Yondaime fought and defeated Kyuubi, but no he did not kill it. Kyuubi is a mass of chakra given form and consciousness, you can't kill that. So he did the only thing he could do to save the village, He sealed that power away. Do you know where he sealed it Hinata?" As the girl looked him in the eyes she saw sadness within those pure blue eyes, taking what luster was there and dulling it with pain. She shook her head, but by the way Naruto was acting and how the village treated him...she could guess well enough

"I hold the Kyuubi within me Hinata, the story I told about my bloodline was for the most part a lie."

The girls eyes widened but she kept quiet as Naruto continued.

"You don't have to worry about me becoming a Kyuubi reborn though, the seal on my stomach. " he raised his shirt and channeled a bit of chakra to show her the seal "keeps the Kyuubi locked up tight, but that doesn't stop people from hating me Hinata." he chuckled bitterly. "Hell they were going to...to put this bluntly, whore me off to those willing. When I reached an age that I was sexually active they would use me as breeding stock." Hinata's mouth hung open slightly. He looked at her and chuckled again "Yeah, I know, horrible isn't it? Well, thankfully Hokage-Jiji thought ahead of time to counter the councils plans, knowing that my blood was now worth more than gold to them. He...he...well..." he tried to find the right words but couldn't, so he decided to tell her about Anko "A woman by the name of Anko Mitarashi found me that night when my bloodline activated. She...she was like me...hated by the villagers...she was actually going to adopt me that night, but Jiji said that he had already tried that and failed, so he came up with a way for both of us to be together..."

Hinata's face fell at this, she could tell where this was going.

"I see you understand" He sighed "Yeah, to keep me away from the council and to allow Anko to care for me he...married us. Anko Mitarashi is actually Anko Uzumaki, we've been married five years now."

A single tear fell down Hinata's cheek, to have her price charming return her affections only to lose him a moment later hurt badly.

"But." he sighed, causing the girl to perk up slightly "There was one other thing that was talked about...the Clan Restoration Act. Under the CRA's laws I can legally have more than one wife and that's where this discussion is going, I know it seems shallow of me but...Hinata, if you truely do love me like you say you do and its not some fangirlish phase, then I'm offering the chance to you" She meant to say something but he held a hand up to stop her "You don't have to answer me now, if you wan't we can date or something to see where this goes. I've already talked this over with Anko and she's entirely cool with me dating multiple women, how she's cool with it I honestly dont know but, yeah." he snorted a bit in amusement.

Hinata looked lost as she thought over what he had said, on the one hand she was glad that she still had a chance with Naruto, but on the other there was just something odd about being 'one of' someones wives, it just seemed to take the magic out of being married, but again, on the other hand, she was a rather pragmatic girl and she was also a ninja with a strict set of morals to follow. Being a whiney fangirl lusting after the perfect man and perfect wedding wasn't one of those morals, although it just so happened that the perfect man for her just so happened to be 'eligible' AND married...would that even be the right word for his circumstances? maybe 'multi-eligible.' would be a better description?

She rubbed her hands together thoughtfully _'I suppose it all comes down to one thing really, can I share?"_ she looked her crush in the eyes, his clear blue eyes reflecting everything back to her, they were full of life, full of love regardless of who he spent time with. He smiled again, this time one of his genuine smiles, not as big but just as infectious. Her heart melted in her chest as she sat there quietly deciding one of the greatest choices in her young life. "N-Naruto-Kun...how...how do you feel about all of this, I know what I feel, but what do you feel?" She bit her lip nervously.

Naruto stared off into the distance for a moment before speaking. "Hinata, I had to choose to marry Anko. A child had to decide his future like that. Even after all this time I still feel that dull ache of lonliness. I know I can spend time with Anko and it goes away some but it's still there." he sighed "I think it's because I didn't have anyone that cared for me in my childhood." he stared off into the distance "Until I met Anko I was completely alone except for Jiji and the Ichiraku's and even then they were never as close as they could be, sure I knew them and respect them greatly but they never gave me any 'love' sure there was affection and a lot of caring but never anything as close as a mother or father's love, or even a lover's love really. So to answer your question...honestly, I don't know. Anko told me that I have enough room in my heart for more than one person and I'd like to think that she's right, but again, I don't know."

Hinata seemed disheartened by that answer "Then why give me this chance at all?

He chuckled lightly, "Well I can't really say, if you want a reason." he scratched his chin thoughtfully. "I guess you can say I just felt like it"

Her face twisted in confusion "J-just felt l-like it!"

"Heh, yeah Hinata, I don't really know anything about being a husband or father...if that ever comes around. But I do know how to be a friend to someone, if you wan't to go deeper then we can start out as friends and go from there, thats why I said we should date before we do anything drastic."

She stared at her crush for a good long while, it was a difficult descision, one that she had to weigh against everything she knew, but answer she did. "I'll do it!"

"N-nani?" Naruto's facevaulted from his sitting postion, (how that's possible, I dont know.) he turned back quickly to Hinata to see a warm smile on her face. "You'll do what? Date me or marry me?"

"Both." her smile took up her entire face.

Naruto just sweatdropped at the answer. _'Ooook, did not see that one coming. She must really like me.' _taking a few moments to compose himself he asked. "How about we make today a date then?"

Those were the magic words, instantly Hinata's eyes lit up and her entire face flushed red.

_'Oh yeah, she REALLY likes me' _a shiver went up his spine as hinata grabbed hold of him.

"Let's go Naruto-kun!" There wasn't a single stutter in that sentence and she sounded like the happiest person alive at the moment, another chill went up his spine as she pulled him back down to the village.

_**-ooo-**_

In a galaxy far far away on a peaceful little planet we find a small green creature meditating in slience. Slowly it opened its eyes and looked towards the stars in the night sky.

"A disturbance in the force , I sense. A great evil, awoken it has...hmmm."

...

"My problem, it is not." it closed its eyes and resumed its meditation.

_**-ooo-**_

"Na Ru To Kuuuun!" Hinata sang.

_'Kami help me'_ he cried, as a pair of hands grabbed him, dragging him off to another place on their 'date'.

_**-ooo-**_

_**Alright people thats a wrap on chapter 7, yeah, yeah I know some of yall be hatin I got Hinata in on the Harem bus that easily, but think of this, that girl has wanted Naruto for 4+ years now, had dreams of marrying him (among other things...*shiver*) and feels completely at ease around him. OFC she'd choose to marry him if it was an open invitation, she'd share him in a heart beat too if it meant being able to be with him, the only thing that was making her wary of it was a few morals here and there, of which she told to fuck off cuz it's her Naruto-kun.**_

_**I couldn't help that Star wars joke there at the end, I'd just finished watching a couple of the movies and had it on the brain. **_

_**As for the kakashi fight, I was actually going to do something with it, but I just couldn't for the life of me come up with something decent, so I just wrote what I felt and it ended up being Naruto using traps instead of his elements, don't worry he'll show off his elemental powers next chapter, this was just a fight that I couldn't get into.**_

_**Ok ladies, next time is some D-ranks, More hinata, and possibly more random reaction by characters not of this world, only time and the next chapter will tell, so lets all cheer for our amusement at Naruto and Kakashi's plight next chapter, till next time folks, Peace.**_


	8. Chapter 8

_**Sup peeps? I'm here to bring you the next installment of SotE**_

_**Again I apologist for the crappy Team 7 vs kakashi thing, I was planing an awesome fight for that but again I just couldn't get into it, so if anyone was disappointed about him just using a massive army of clones to throw down traps I apologize, Naruto will however be using his elements this chapter.**_

**RANT TIME, skip if you don't want to read that.**

**OK still paying attention? Good. Alright I have an interesting thing to talk about today, for the most part I've been pretty soft on the characters of this story, making fun of them here and there as I saw fit, however a few of you have suggested I 'bash' certain characters in a couple of reviews, now I know that's fairly common in 'humor' fanfics to bash certain characters (usually the ones the author personally despises) However I got a PM the other day asking about bashing someone, it wasn't a specific or anything just 'Why haven't I bashed anyone in my story.' Looking back I realized, I HADN'T bashed anyone, aside from Danzo in the third chapter which was all of 1 or 2 lines I really hadn't busted anyone's balls. But then I remembered the reason WHY I don't bash. To me there is no irredeemable character, all characters through some plot contrivance CAN be saved. Doesn't mean they SHOULD BE, just that they can. But that's where my point comes in at. I'm not the type to bash a character just because I can, the reason? Because to bash a character is to admit that it is irredeemable, that the character is so far gone that the only thing that you can get out of them is an ooc dart board to throw insults and misfortunes at, take Sasuke for instance, most people make him out to be the arrogant retard that can't do shit without stealing the hard work of others, that and the small penis and erectile dysfunction jokes abound around the guy, which to me isn't funny. **

**Let's put this into penis joke perspective. Sasuke bashing is like that young up and coming 'ironic' comedian. The irony being that even though he's up and coming and apparently 'good' his jokes are rather tasteless and bland. His penis jokes amount to "Penis Penis Penis, teeheehee I said penis" that isn't irony, that is at best sarcasm if he isn't taking the joke seriously, and just sad if he is taking them seriously. No, a real comedian telling a real joke would be one that focused on the object rather than the character. If you're going to do a penis joke do it in a way that is refreshing and new, or at least make it 'ironic' like you claim it to be, take the Austin powers penis joke where they mistake that rocket that looks like a giant-**

-Johnson. What does it look like on the screen?" The general commanded his second in command, who whimpered out "The device has a long, smooth shaft, complete with-

-TWO BALLS!" yelled the umpire.

**See what I'm getting at here? Instead of tastelessly turning a possibly good character in a story into a brain dead monkey, to poke at with a stick while it throws its poo at you. You can instead use that character (Like the general or his second in command) IN the joke instead of BEING the joke and applying it to something that doesn't ruin the character forever. For example, Naruto makes a penis joke and several people in the room, including Sasuke check their pants to make sure of their 'manliness' it's a visual gag yes but it's still using a penis joke without overtly bashing that character or turning them into brain dead retards.**

**On the other hand I do condone bashing if it's used to further character development, say the bashing of Hinata to harden her resolve and become a badass motha heffer. Constructive bashing is better than destructive bashing.**

**Honestly...I guess it's all a matter of opinion, but my earlier description of bashing is pretty accurate, you're "Turning a possibly good character into a below average IQ, ooc dart board to throw insults and misfortunes at." **

**thanks for listening on to the story.  
**

_**Disclaimer: as always don't own Naruto, if I did, everyone would be girls and it would be a lesbian drama, with ninjas...and smoking...smoking ninjas. I do however own the original jutsu used and one (1) military grade soda can.**_

_**-ooo-**_

"speech"

_'Thoughts'_

**"Kyubi speech"**

_**'Kyubi thoughts'**_

Jutsu

_**Chapter 8: D-day.**_

"So she's in on this whole multiple wives thing then?" Anko eyed the sheepish looking Naruto and the blushing Hinata behind him.

"Uh...Yeah, turns out she kinda has a huge crush on me." Naruto chuckled.

"Just a crush?" Anko raised her eyebrow.

Naruto scratched the back of his head nervously "Er...the make out for almost an hour with tongue kind of crush." said eyebrow disappeared into her hairline.

_'Oookay then"_ Anko stared at the blushing girl, who upon closer inspection was rubbing her legs together suggestively, which made Anko's other eyebrow disappear. She turned to look at Naruto in surprise _'Crush nothing, this girl is about ready to jump his bones, it's only me and her modesty keeping her from following through. Damn Gaki you bagged a minx.'_ Anko licked her lips a little and grinned.

Naruto paled when she did that, that could only mean one thing. _'I'm sorry Hinata-chan. Really, really sorry...'_

"Alright then, Hinata, come with me" She grabbed the girl and all but dragged her into an adjacent room to 'explain' a few things to the girl, the sounds of said 'explanation' brought a thin trail of blood from the blondes nose, before everything went black for him...

Meanwhile in the other room Anko was grinning madly _'Well there he went'_ Anko cackled mentally, knowing the boy had passed out from the noises she was getting the Hyuuga girl to make, after she heard him hit the floor she stopped her 'play time' to give the Hyuuga girl a firm glare. "Alright girly listen up" she snapped, making the partially violated heiress stiffen a bit.

"Y-yes Anko-san?" the girl replied nervously, still reeling from the sensations the snake mistress ave her

"I've heard the Gaki's reasons for this little _addition_ to the family, but now I want yours, I want to know if you really love him and why. Do it quickly before I start 'playing' with you again." she wiggled an eyebrow suggestively which made the younger girl blush furiously.

"W-well, N-Naruto-kun is..." She blushed again just thinking about the boy.

Anko smacked the girl on top of the head, "Quit stuttering and tell me dumbass."

"Owwie" the Hyuuga whined rubbing the bump on her head, a look from Anko told her another would be coming soon if she didn't hurry. The girl sighed and took a deep breath. "Naruto-kun...I've always admired him, e-ever since we met, it was that day you were c-chasing him to that playground, he s-sort of crashed into me and we talked for a minute or so before he left again." She poked her fingers together nervously "I can't say I believe in love at first sight but I fell for Naruto-kun just like he fell on me." She chuckled a little bit with a blush. "I-I've watched him for a long time now, and h-he's always inspired me to b-better myself, just watching the training he goes through when he's by h-himself is amazing, and I can't help but admire him." The girl blushed again "It helps that he's so s-sexy with those ears and tail." she turned an even deeper scarlet when she admitted that, which caused a wide grin to cross Anko's face.

"So you love him then?" the snake mistress prodded.

"Yes" Hinata nodded "With every bit of my heart"

"Good" Anko smiled "That's all I needed to know." Hinata stared at Anko like she was crazy, which to be fair she kind of was.

"T-thats all?"

"Yep, as long as you really love the gaki, which from the sound and looks of it you really, really do. Just don't hurt him and we won't have any problems."

Hinata nodded dumbly wondering just what the hell she'd gotten herself into, only to realize that Anko was staring hungrily at the girl, who let out a little 'eep' of fear, which made Anko look turn feral as she descended on her 'prey.' The noises of which were heard all around the forest of death making many of the native creatures look towards the tower and somehow or another being sentient enough to sweatdrop at the noise which by all rights _shouldn't_ be happening there...

_**-The next day, training ground 3-**_

"Hello team." Kakashi hailed them.

"...You're late." came the annoyed reply.

He eye-smiled "Sorry about that a black cat crossed my path so I had to take another path."

"You do realise you could just shunshin here right?" Naruto deadpanned.

"But then where's the fun of the journey?" came the irritating reply which made the three genin facepalm.

"Ok fuck the explanations lets just train and maybe stay sane enough to do a mission afterwords." Naruto growled.

"Oh, and just what kind of training do _you_ want to do Naruto?" Kakashi looked questioningly at the blonde with his one good eye, not forgetting that little boast about him training his teammates yesterday.

Naruto stared blankly at him, then turned to look at Sakura and Sasuke. He frowned for a moment then snapped his fingers. "Got it. Yo Kakashi you mind if I teach Sakura and Sasuke about chakra natures?"

Kakashi pulled his Icha Icha out and waved dismissively at him "Sure knock yourself out." subtly though he kept a keen eye on the boy, wondering just what he was up to.

Naruto sighed and turned to his teammates "Alright you two let's see what natures you both have." He pulled out a couple of pieces of paper and handed it to them, "Channel your chakra into those slips of paper." They stared at him questioningly "Just do it." he sighed.

The nodded and sent chakra into the paper. Sakura's paper soaked with a corner of the paper crumbled into dust, Sasuke's on the other hand crumpled with a large corner catching fire. Both dropped thier slips in shock, much like Naruto had his first time.

"Alright, looks like Sakura is a Water element with an Earth sub. Sasuke is a Lightning element with a Fire sub." Naruto nodded to himself already coming up with a decent training exercise. "Alright I got something." Naruto pulled out his water bottle and tossed it to the pinkette, "Alright Sakura, for you, I want you to use your chakra to try and spin the water around in that bottle, once you can get the water spinning at a decent speed I'll show you the next step." He glanced at the Uchiha. "Sasuke, do you have a pair of kunai on you?" Sasuke nodded and produced the number of kunai. "Alright now what I want you to do is hold those two kunai with the tips almost touching each other and I want you to force chakra into one of the kunai. Then, try and arc your chakra from one blade tip to the other. If you both complete this exercise you'll have already attained a small mastery over your main element, after you've gained a mastery over that element I'll help you work with your secondary element."

"Hey Naruto?"

""Yeah Sakura?"

"How do you know all of this stuff? I've only read bits of elemental training, but..." she looked at him diverting her attention between him and the bottle of water, already the water inside was slowly starting to spin.

He snorted "It's quite simple really." he held up a piece of chakra paper and pushed chakra into it, like it had several times before, it split in half twice and each corner went to one of the other four elements "On top of the foxy bits, I have a major affinity to all five major elements along with my natural bloodline element, Ice." He flew through several handsigns. and brought a hand to his mouth "Water Release: Mizurappa" A small rush of water flew from his mouth and landed in a puddle nearby, going through several other seals he brought his hand down on the edge of the water Ice Release: Frozen Wave" The water flash froze when his hand came into contact with it, had anyone been standing in the puddle they'd have been anchored to the ground. "However" he smirked and went through a few more handseals, "Due to my affinity to the major elements and a few other things that I'm not gonna go into detail about, I can use other elemental bloodlines as well. Observe, Lava Release: Lava globs!" a wad of lava flew from Naruto's mouth and struck the ice, instantly causing it to hiss in protest before Naruto fired off another Mizurappa to harden the lava.

_'So its true then?'_ Kakashi mused flicking a curious eye from his book to glance at the large chunk of rock and the puddle that used to be ice. _'I guess what the hokage told me is correct, but for him of all people to have a mastery of the five main elements and the ability to replicate other elemental bloodlines naturally without the blood of that bloodline in his veins? This team just got interesting...and if they can get their teamwork and skills up to a manageable degree this team will be a force to be reckoned with.'_ He noticed the looks of shock on Sakura and Sasukes faces _'Hmm, perhaps those two will learn something from Naruto after all..._

Sakura was watching Naruto's display with awe. _'Is this really Naruto? He was such a baka in the academy, always joking around, but this...this is just too much'_ she glanced at Sasuke who had a similar look on his face as the one she now had.

Sasuke for the most part was boiling with jealousy, to have that much power at your fingertips was unreal to him _'Dammit if only I had that kind of power killing Itachi would be childs play. Maybe I can get the dobe to teach me how he does it, then maybe...'_ The uchiha grit his teeth, the thought of bowing to someone lesser than him to gain power did not appeal to the proud Uchiha, even if Naruto was a decent guy and one of his few 'friends.' The thought still sickened him.

"OK! Any questions?" Naruto barked, snapping the two out of their thoughts.

Sakura looked at the bottle she had in her hand "Just what are you planning for us to learn Naruto?" Sakura asked curiously.

"Well now, that's an interesting question" Naruto mused. "Toss me that bottle real quick, a toss and a pop later the cap on the bottle was removed, "What I'm going to teach you two is what I myself discovered while learning how to control my elements. what most people don't know, or at least don't think about, is how to control elements in their base forms, most people use handsigns to shape and form a jutsu but to be perfectly honest you could preform 'jutsu' without a single handsign, sure you can do that with regular jutsu as well if you practice enough with it but I mean actual control over the elements around you." he held up the bottle "Take for instance this water bottle" he spun the water in the bottle around a few times infusing it with his chakra before taking a sip. With a sharp exhale he spat the held water at a nearby tree which impacted with a noticeable thud despite it being only a small amount of water.

"That is what I'm talking about" he pointed to the dent made in the tree. "What I just did is something akin to Water Release: Teppōdama which creates a bullet of water from the mouth, while not nearly as strong as a Teppōdama it's still useful." He walked over to Sasuke getting inches from him "What if an enemy has gotten in close, too close for you to dodge or form handsigns? Just have a loogie or a sip of water ready and you can hit the guy in his face with the equivalent to a strong punch, hell you hit him in the eye and you could blind one of them." The Uchiha shivered, one of the few things he feared was being blinded, as were all doujutsu users in a way. "For lightning" he continued, as a slight buzzing noise was heard. Looking down at Naruto's hand there was a small bit of lightning chakra on the tips of his thumb and pinky. He reached out a touched Sasuke which made the boy jump back in pain from the sudden jolt. "I call that the Tazer. Shocking isn't it?" Naruto cackled.

Sasuke just glared at him.

"Oi don't give me that look, you're lucky I toned that down, that was only about one fourth the power I can put into that thing, if I went full out with that tap you'd be twitching on the ground right now. Besides, I can teach you how to use that ability if you'll stop brooding for a moment."

Sasuke continued to glare at him. but couldn't help but agree with Naruto _'Ugh, fine, I'll let him teach me something...If anything I can use it against him later on, not to mention that last attack was badass.'_ The Uchiha nodded.

Naruto grinned "ALRIGHTY THEN!" a shiver went up Sasuke and Sakuras spine.

_**-A few hours later, mission hall-**_

Iruka couldn't help but snicker at the sight before him. Naruto had a wide grin on his face, beside him and completely soaked to the bone was a waterlogged Sakura. Next to her was a smoking Sasuke Uchiha, every once in awile a stray spark would jump between the spaces in his hair. Behind the three of them was Kakashi who had a wide eye-smile on his face but if you looked closer you could tell he was silently laughing at two of his more unfortunate students.

"Ahem." the Jonin cleared his throat to keep himself from laughing. "Team 7 here for their first D-Rank Mission."

Iruka snapped to attention "Ah, ah yes your first D-Rank mission. Hmm let me see here." The scarred chuunin dug through a small mound of scrolls to one side of him and pulled out a single scroll. "This should be a decent enough challenge for your team." He tossed the scroll to Kakashi who opened it and began to read...only to pale dramatically and stare at the now grinning chuunin in front of him.

"You really don't like me do you?" he groaned, which only made Irukas grin wider. "Fine...Team 7: mission to capture Tora, accepted."

_**-ooo-**_

"*20 yards till in reach of the target*" Naruto's voice over the radio whispered.

"*Get closer and prepare to ambush*" Kakashi whispered back.

"*Roger*" came the unanimous response.

moments later...

"AHHHRG COMMERE PUSSY!" Naruto's voice roared out around the forest...followed shortly by a hair raising hiss and the sound of claws tearing into flesh... **(A/N Hey he's a master of elements not animals, wrong story.)**

_**-ooo-**_

"Mission to capture Tora successful" Kakashi beamed, happy to have stayed the hell away from that demon spawn of Satan known as Tora. "Casualties..." he looked at Naruto who was lying in a pool of his own blood silently cursing whatever gods spawned that fucking cat and ever so slowly moving his hands in a motion that suggested he was trying to strangle something. ".5"

**"Now you know why I hate people"** Kyuubi replied happily using whatever mental communication powers she had to annoy the crap out of Naruto.

_'Shut it woman!" _he groaned mentally, perfectly content to let his healing power take care of the bleeding. _'How the hell did I get scratches on my ass?'_

**"Funny thing that, when you passed out with the cat in your arms you landed on her and she proceeded to tear you a new asshole."**

_'Why is there the kanji for 'Tora' scratched into my ass?'_

**"...Something to remember her by?"**

_'Riiiight...'_

_10 minutes and deus ex machina healing later._

_'Ok, that's that's last of the blood!'_ Naruto whistled happily, that is until he noticed that the rest of his team had left. Sighing _'Why do they do this to me?'_

**"Maybe because you waterlogged one and turned the other into a lightning rod? Good job on that by the way, way to spread missery to the those around you."**

_'Yeah whatever._" Naruto stared up at the clock to check the time. _"Hmm I wonder why they left, there's still a good 3-4 hours left of the day, we could take at least one more mission in that time couldn't we?'_

**"Yeah I don't get that about you humans, even though there's plenty of time in the day you still rarely do all of what you can, that kind of behaviour is confusing.**

_'Well we do tend to enjoy ourselves alot'_ He nodded sagely_ 'And the more time in the day we have to have fun the better, after all it's not like we can be in two places at once.'_

**"?"** came an odd growl from Kyuubi in Naruto's mind.

_'Kyu? What's up?'_ he was getting concerned when she didn't say anything for a good 30 seconds.

**"Kit, what if you 'could' be in two places at once to do more of these D-Rank Missions?"** The fox said finally with a strange tone to its voice, something like curiosity but not.

_'Well that could help alot in making some quick cas...you're thinking of using shadow clones aren't you.'_

A light girly chuckle filled his head.

_'Have I ever told you how much I appreciate you?'_ he asked sincerely.

**"No, but you should definitely start, my vanity commands it."** The two shared a quick chuckle together. With the reveal that Kyuubi was less of a dick...er...bitch than previously thought it was much easier to get along with the woman...er...vixen...thing, _fuck it._

**"Yes, please do."** she licked her lips sensually in Naruto's head, which made the blonde haired teen all kinds of uncomfortable.

_'Great not only do I have a sadistic and horny wife I have a sadistic and horny demon vixen in me head, fuck my life.'_

**"Gladly." **She replied perkily.

_"Not you dammit!'_ the boy sighed in defeat, that is until the light tapping of fingers drew his attention to Iruka who was giving him an questioning look, apparently the range of emotions passing over his face must have looked rather odd... "Yeah Iruka?"

"WHAT ARE YOU STILL DOING HERE MAKING FACES FOOL?" the Chunins head swelled comically to yell at our blonde haired hero.

Naruto just stared blankly, but in his head... _'Crikey, here we see the __Big Head Jutsu __in its natural environment, what a beautiful and dangerous creature...I'm gonna poke it with a stick! *HISS* OH IT'S ANGRY!' _

**"*pfffthehehe*"** the Kyuubi snorted in amusement.

Moments of possible insanity aside

"Yo Iruka-sensei" Naruto hailed him, deflating the Chuunin's jutsu down to less comical levels.

"Yes Naruto?" The scarred man looked curiously at the boy.

"Can I do missions on my own as long as they are right for my rank?"

Iruka scratched his head trying to remember the few rules of conduct for genin regarding taking mission and as far as he knew nothing in the books said a genin can't take a solo mission as long as it was within his level of skill. "Sure Naruto I don't see why not."

"What about multiple missions?" the Chuunin nodded, a bit confused. "Well then" Naruto smiled "Could I see what missions you have?" he was pointed to a pile of scrolls off to the side "You kind of backed up lately Iruka-sensei?" The boy sweatdropped at the massive tower of scrolls sitting next to the table.

"Well it's not usually this bad but yes there are quite a few missions that don't get completed sometimes, but that's just because we're a bit undermanned to handle all the requests that come in all the time.

_'More like the genin teams are too lazy to take more than one mission'_ Naruto snorted, as he dug through the pile of scrolls _'Lets see...Dog walking, nope. Painting fences...nooo. Pulling weeds, nada.'_ After about ten minutes of sorting through all of the D-Ranks which for lack of a better term could just be called 'chores,' Naruto choze five of the ones that paid well and weren't obscenely difficult or time consuming. He thumped the small pile down on the table which brought a raised eyebrow from Iruka.

"You sure you want to take this many Naruto?" Naruto nodded.

"Yeah Iruka-sensei I'm sure. I need the money to pay for my own things and doing D-Ranks is the easiest way to make money."

"But aren't you staying with Anko?" the Chuunin was curious. Everyone in the village knew that Naruto and Anko were staying together but unlike most of Konoha he knew that the two were actually married, Sarutobi had put a gag order on telling the populace that the two were actually husband and wife, leaving it to become a rumor, while Naruto had told Iruka after the man proved that he was a good guy and one of the few people that actually treated him as a person.

"But that's just it Iruka, If anything happens and Anko can't work It'll be up to me to handle paying for everything and since I became an adult the moment I put this headband on I can't just ignore my responsibility to her." Iruka would have laughed at how devoted the boy sounded towards the woman but then he realised that this was something genuine from the boy. Anko was one of the few people who had seen him at his worst, without a mask to hide his true feelings. Her along with Sarutobi , The Ichiraku's and himself, were the only people to truly accept him, so this was a touchy subject for the blonde.

"I understand" he sighed "You know you're alot like me Naruto, I had to take care of myself too, though I was a bit older than you when I started" He grinned and rubbed his nose in embarrassment. "If you need any help or advice you know who to ask."

"I can ask you about anything?"

"Anything."

Naruto got a devious smile on his face, "Oh then can I ask you _all_ about '_that_' then?" Iruka turned beet red, he knew _exactly_ what Naruto was referring too but he wasn't gonna give the genin the satisfaction to know he was getting to the scarred man.

"Bah, get out of here, Anko's crazy is starting to rub off on you." Iruka huffed, marking the scrolls down and placing them on the desk in front of him.

"That's not all she's rubbing off!" He cackled madly as he grabbed his scrolls and ran out the door leaving a sputtering Iruka in his dust.

"..." Iruka facepalmed...better make that facedesked...actually, better make that both at the same time...ouch.

_**-ooo-**_

"Ahhh that was refreshing" Naruto chuckled, as he put as much distance between himself and the mission hall.

**"Heh even I have to admit that was pretty devious of you kit, the look on his face was priceless."**

_'Ohohooo this is just the beginning, the Prank King of Konoha has just gotten started Muahahahahha.'_

**"As much as I enjoy your semi-decent into evil, why did you choose those five missions kit, they weren't anything that special when you looked at them, aside from the fact that they're easy and pay well you seemed to put alot of thought into them."**

Naruto grabbed one of the scrolls and opened it, it was a part time job at a bakery to handle the oven in the kitchen. _'What in this scroll looks like it would interest me?'_

You could almost see the fox woman's eyebrows scrunch together as she examined the mission, then a smile spread across her face. **"This is training isn't it, every one of these missions has something to do with the five main elements."**

_'Got it in one.'_ He grinned _'Helping at a power plant will allow me to work on what lightning jutsu I have. Working the oven at the bakery, which just so happens to be a wood burning oven will help my fire jutsu. Picking up trash by the river will help with my water jutsu. Clearing a field of rocks for earth jutsu and helping repair the windmills around town will help with wind.'_

**"I gotta hand it to ya, only you would think to turn chores into training."**

"Naruto shook his head, _'Nah this wasn't my idea. To be honest these jobs were originally used for exactly what I'm using them for, Training. Back in the old days they were used to promote teamwork and act as a form of training. Clearing a field of stones could easily be a physical exercise. Working the ovens would increase your tolerance's to harsh temperatures like you'd find in Wind country. Knowing how a power plant functions could give you valuable info on how to sabotage one in an enemy village thus causing panic and confusion along with giving an invading squad a much needed advantage by allowing them to do their mission under cover of complete darkness. So you see D-ranks when used properly are invaluable to a shinobi in training.'_

**"And just who came up with this method of training?"**

Naruto cracked a grin _'The first Hokage of course.'_

**"How nice..." **the fox replied blandly **"The man who first imprisoned me in his wife is also the one who'd give my newest container a great way to train in using powers indirectly gained from me..." **Naruto chuckled.

_'The irony of the situation was not lost on me either.'_

**"Whatever, let's just get this over with, I'm feeling a bit uncomfortable with you leaving Hinata with Anko..."** there was clear agitation in her voice.

_'Concerned? Really?'_ The raised brow showed his confusion, just why would the fox care about someone other than itself?

**"Unlike you I know exactly what she is capable of, not to mention that Hyuuga girl is going to be your mate kit, and by extension 'mine' and I don't want that snake woman violating her beyond what is...acceptable, At least until you can get ahold of her..."** a barely controlled feeling of revulsion ran down Naruto's spine.

_'There are levels of acceptable violation? Do I want to know?'_

**"There are three, and until you are married to her...no."**

_'OK Then'._ As he proceeded to forget that conversation ever happened...

_**-ooo-**_

_**A/N Ok the next chapter is a time skip to the beginning of the wave arc so YAY HAKU AND ZABUZA TIME!**_

_**Blame that crocodile hunter joke on Gabriel Iglesias, watched too many videos of him last night on youtube... actually pretty much all the other humor of this chapter, for some reason I felt like being funny today :/**_

_**Also I'm going to start listing original techniques and jutsu here since I can't translate Japanese for shit so the names of original jutsu are going to be in English. Anything not listed here is a jutsu from the show/manga/games so just look for it on the wiki. Please note that I'm using the Japanese names for some of the jutsu even though I'm using the 'Release' style of names, mainly because the difference between 'Mizurappa' and 'Wild Water Wave' is merely an aesthetic choice and I find some of the literal English names silly.**_

Ice Release: Frozen Wave

C-rank

Description: instantly freezes water on contact, the distance and how quickly the water freezes depends on how much chakra is put into the technique.

Lightning Release: Tazer

D-Rank

Description: A non-lethal lightning attack that doesn't require a handseal, hand is held out in a flat palm with pinky and thumb extended, it also isn't required to say the name of the attack.

Water Release: mini bullet

C-Rank

Description: A technique similar to Water Release: Teppōdama but doesn't require handseals and is an order of magnitude weaker than the Teppōdama.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N  
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**UPDATE: As of right now, I've come back to FF. Since Yourfanfiction has closed down I've been looking for places to post my more adult works at. Having not found anything that is up to par with this site I have come to an impasse.  
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**The only way I can think to get over this is to post my stories here, editing out the lemons and posting either the full chapter or just the lemons elsewhere so that you can all enjoy them. I haven't found a place just yet, but the lemons of sage along with my Stuck in an Eroge story (which also gained a fairly large following on UFF) Shall be posted when I can find a place to do so...if wost comes to worst I shall create an AFF account.  
**

**So enjoy the update to this chapter which I noticed had quite a few errors that I've fixed, I'll have the 10th chapter up in a bit.  
**

**Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto, I do however own any original jutsu that my mind can conjure up.**

_**-ooo-**_

"speech"

_'Thoughts'_

**"Kyubi speech"**

_**'Kyubi thoughts'**_

Jutsu

_**Chapter 9: Mission to Wave.**_

**-Timeskip 4 weeks and a metric fuck ton of D-Ranks later...-**

"So you think you're ready for a C-Rank mission do you?" the third mused as he stared at the irritated faces of team 7. Surprisingly Naruto was fairly calm about the whole situation. Apparently he didn't mind D-Ranks that much since his clones take care of most of the work. The third had notced this while checking on Naruto through his crystal ball, to the stunned surprise of the aged kage. That, and Sarutobi knew the kid must be loaded right now, he'd already done well over 150 D-Ranks that month (5-6 per day), and at roughly 5000 Ryo per mission the kid was more than well off. **(A/N roughly 50 USD per mision, 250-300 USD Per day, or between 7.5k and 9k USD in all.) **

"Yes sir, I believe my team has earned a chance at taking on a C-Rank." You could tell Kakashi was sucking up to Sarutobi, hell even Sakura could tell and that's saying something.

"The third sighed "Well seeing that your team has enough missions between the three of them to constitue a C-Rank, I don't see why they couldn't take one." He lit his pipe and took a nice long drag.

"I thank you Hokage-sama." Kakashi let out a little bow.

"Very well, I have just the mission for your team today." He turned to a chunin by the door. "Send in the client please." The Chunin nodded and walked out, a few minutes later an old man wobbled in, you could tell he was drunk by the smell that followed him, not to mention the open bottle of sake in his hand.

"Wha? These bunch a brats are gonna be guarding me?" the old man slurred.

"Yes, Team 7 will be escorting Tazuna the bridge builder here to the land of waves where his next bridge is to be built and will stay for the duration to protect him and his bridge from any bandits or highwaymen that may interfear with that."

Kakashi tunred to the Tazuna "Don't worry sir, these three may be Genin but I am a Jonin ranked ninja and their teacher so you don't need to fear any bandits while we're with you." Kakashi eye smiled at him

"Yeah whatever." he turned back to leave the room.

"Meet us at the gate in one hour." Kakashi called out, the only response was a wave of a hand. He turned to the Genin present. "Alright you heard, go pack your things and be at the gate in one hour."

_**-ooo-**_

_'Alright, finally a decent mission, no more of the crap work for awhile!' _Naruto was nearly jumping for joy at the prospect of leaving the village on his first real mission, even if it was to protect some old goat of a bridge builder. It was a start and thats all that mattered.

**"You know Hinata's going to jump you when you get back right?" **the fox chuckled ** "I swear that girl has become so attached to you, I'm surprised she hasn't fused with your tail with how much she grabs onto the damn thing."**

_'Ugghh, don't remind me...I know I only really showed the thing off once in class when I first started, but seriously did she HAVE TO pull an Anko on my tail?'_

**"Actually I'd be more afraid of what her father is going to do to your tail..."** Naruto let out an unconscious shiver.

'Don't remind me'

_**-Generic flashback of doom, 3 weeks ago-**_

"Hinata-chan?" Naruto started, the two were sitting comfortably in the tower of death, After Anko's little 'seesion' with Hinata, the young Hyuuga had taken a liking to the place, if only to be around the snake mistress more... That and become a symbiotic life form with her ever present center of the universe, Naruto. Or more accurately the tail he just so happened to show her not a few minutes ago.

Said girl proceeded to wrap her body around said apendage and then started to snuggle the furry thing...Hinata didn't really give a shit at that point but it was starting to freak Naruto out.

"Yes Naruto-Kun" Hinata replied sweetly, his tail wrapped firmly around the girl.

"So are you still going to marry me and everything, I know it's been a week and we've gone on a few dates and all but does everything 'feel' right to you?"

The Hyuuga girl nodded "Yes Naruto-Kun, I haven't felt happier in my life."

"I see you're not stuttering anymore, what happened?" the blonde looked curiously at the girl, for her to stop stuttering meant she overcame the confidence issues she had told him about on their first date, but how the hell did she do it so fast...

"Anko's agressive _'therapy' _helped" She smiled again but there was a tint of red this time...

_'Ah thats why...'_ a large sweatdrop was starting to form on Naruto's head..."Wait, I forgot to ask, how has your dad taken to us dating and our planned marriage?" The girls face fell _'Oh thats not good'_

"I haven't told him yet" she replied sadly "He know's I'm dating you but the marriage is still hidden from him."

"Don't worry Hinata-chan." he wrapped the girl into a big hug which got the desired 'eep' he was looking for, no matter what 'therapy' Anko used, Hinata was still Hinata. "We'll burn that bridge when we cross it, if it helps any I'll try and get him alone and have a nice father-son chat"

"Really?" she sounded hopeful.

"For you Hinata-chan, anything" He gave her a warm smile which made the girl snuggle her fuzzy boa, (aka Naruto's tail) even harder, causing some discomfort for our hero...

_**-End Flashback-**_

Naruto shivered again as a phantom pain rain up his tail. _'Yeah I'll talk to her dad when I get back from this mission_

**"Oh you poor, poor bastard..."**

_'Thanks for the vote of confidence.'_

She giggled like a schoolgirl. **"You're welcome."**

"..."

_**-At the gate-**_

"He's late..." Sakura growled.

"And you're surprised by that how?" Naruto asked staring down at a pair of cards, "Hit me" he barked at Sasuke who delt him another card.

"That's 21. Damn dobe, remind me to take you to a casino to clear the place out, how many wins is that now.

"42." he replied blankly

Sasukes face scrunched up in thought. "... I suddenly got a feeling... that the universe is fucking with us..."

"Welcome to my world! You'll like it here, we have cookies!" Naruto replied maniacally.

"Make it tomatoes and you got a deal!" Sasuke barked with conviction, pumping his fist in the air.

*SMACK, SMACK*

"You two are hopeless." Sakura huffed, as the two rubbed the lumps on their heads

"Ahh you're just jealous that Sasuke's hanging out with me alot more than you" Naruto got a sly look to his face, "Or is it you think something's going on between us, YaoiSaku-chan?"

*SMACK*

"In your dreams, baka" The lump on Naruto's head now had a smaller one on top of it.

Naruto could only chuckle though, seeing as Sakura barely put any power behind that one or the one before for that matter. Over the past month team 7 had bonded surprisingly well. Sasuke seemed mellower and friendlier, though that was probably from Naruto showing Sasuke how use his lightning element, nothing like a sense of accomplishment to bring people together after all. However when Naruto had shown him how to use the tazer a gleam that looked eerily similar to his when he pulled pranks was visible in the Uchiha's eye and that sent chills down the blonde maverick's spine. Whether they were good or bad chills had yet to be established.

As for Sakura, the girl took to her water element like...well...a fish to water. It only took an abnormally large amount of partial drownings to get the girl into tip top shape with her element, she couldn't do anything big with her reserves as small as they were, but what she lacked in power she more then made up in control. Naruto chuckled evily _'it's funny, she took the Teppōdama knock-off I showed her, and refined it down to insane degrees, now it's almost as effective as a regular Teppōdama__! She doesn't even need seals either, just gather chakra and bam!'_

**"It is impressive, they took to their elements better than you did."** Kyuubi piped in.

_'Well duh. They had me teaching them while I had to find out everything they now know on my own, so it took me a bit longer.'_

**"It's a good thing we were able to get her to learn some medical jutsu as well."**

_'Yeah'_ he snorted silently _'Even if she's coming along nicely with water we definitely need a medic, I know I'm a badass motherfucker and all but even I get hurt.. It's definitely a good idea, wonder why no one's thought of it before?'_

Meanwhile is some bass ackwards city in fire country a blonde haired woman sitting at a slot machine sneezed violently causing the machine to hit trip 7's. "Someone must be talking bad about me" The woman mused as she scooped her winnings into a bucket.

Back with our hero we find him winning another hand, this time at poker.

"Dammit!" The Uchiha grumbled, "Seriously dude, we need to market you as a good luck charm, what does that make it now?"

"69 wins"

"...I'm getting that feeling that the universe is fucking with us again..."

"Don't worry you get used to it" Naruto waved off his concern "Now deal the cards." after another 10 minutes of Naruto winning hands Kakashi finally decided to grace them with his presence.

"Yo, glad to see you're all here."

Naruto turned an interested look at the cycloptic jonin "What's the excuse this time, huh?"

Kakashi shrugged "Eh, I got jumped by some woman on the way here, she had her way with me in an academy broom closet and when she was finished she wanted to snuggle. Who was I to deny her?"

Both Naruto and Sasuke dropped their cards, Sakura dropped her jaw, Tazuna...(who just so happened to be just as late as Kakashi due to him having a hangover) dropped his sake bottle, which he promptly caught before it hit the ground...no sense in wasting good booze.

Naruto's laughter filled the air. "Ok if that's a lie I'll give you a 10 for originallity." Kakashi eye-smiled "If it's the truth then hot damn hahahaha."

"Well, I'll be happy to admit that you three will _never_ know" the Jonin purred out, creeping out all of those present.

"Not that I'd wan't to know what your sex life is like." Naruto remarked blandly.

"Oh and what would you know about a sex life, Mr. virgin?" Kakashi raised an eyebrow, hoping to get a rise out of the youth.

Sadly Naruto just gave him a blank look, he also raised an eyebrow which made Kakashi sweat a little when he remembered that Sarutobi said the boy was _married_ to _Anko._ All he'd have to do was ask the kinky woman to do _anything_ and she'd most likely try it.

"Ok then, moving on." Kakashi wisely dodged that bullet. "Are all of you packed?" he glanced between his three students, his gaze finally landing on Naruto, who didn't have a pack on. "Naruto where is your pack?" in response, Naruto pulled a scroll out of his back pocket.

"Sealed up tight in this scroll sensei." he flipped the scroll once before pocketing it.

"You know how to make storage scrolls?" Kakashi sounded surprised and genuinely interested.

"Yeah I've dabbled in the sealing arts here and there. I like making my own things, and making my own exploding tags and storage scrolls makes my life alot easier." He grinned, hoping Kakashi would drop the subject.

"Alright Naruto, just don't try to learn anything that is out of your range, I don't wan't you acidentally ripping a part of you soul out or blowing up half of Konoha, just be extremely careful in what you do, one wrong line can destroy alot more than it can create."

"Yeah sensei, I take every precaution when I'm practicing seals, I even use shadow clones to do the seal so I don't get caught up in anything if something goes wrong."

"Good" he eye-smiled. "Now let's get going." he turned away from Naruto, not catching the slight sigh of relief Naruto let out, he didn't need to know how much he knew about seals, or the real reason why he was studying them...

_**-ooo-**_

"Hey Kakashi-sensei, how long till we get to wave country anyway?" Naruto asked as they walked down the road leading away from the village, the trees around them blowing in the wind.

"Well" Kakashi looked at the position of the sun, "Going at this pace we should get there by this time tomorrow." Naruto nodded and they continued walking in a comfortable silence.

Kakashi stared at the pages of his Icha Icha book when he noticed a small puddle of water along the roadside...in the middle of a sunny day when it hadn't rained for weeks.

_'That's not suspicious or anything, by the feel of it, two mid-chunin...hmm...eh let's see how much they've improved.'_ He chuckled mentally and turned back to his book, silently readying a Kawarimi since he was at the back of the group, thus the first target.

Sure enough two men rose from the puddle, In complete silence the two brothers Gozu and Meizu charged, in mere moments they had Kakashi wrapped up in the shuriken chain conected to their gauntlets.

"One down!" Gōzu growled, Yanking the chain and in a fountain of blood and gore bits of what was left of kakahsi hit the ground in a wet puddle.

"Four more" Meizu growled back.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura cried.

Naruto mentally scoffed _'Come on Sakura he isn't dead, even an idiot could tell those two were there, and if I noticed him, Kakashi sure as hell did.' _ He didn't have time to tell the girl that as Gōzu was getting too close for comfort, flipping through a couple handseals he slapped a hand on the ground. "Earth Release: Earth Flow Spears" he yelled, as several spikes rushed up from the ground pinning the chain that connected the brothers with lances of stone. The two were jerked off their feet as the chain snapped taut, slamming them to the ground in a heap.

"Cut it!" Meizu grunted, as the two released the chain from their guantlets. "I got the bridge builder." he got to his feet and rushed forward clawed guantlet leading.

Naruto jumped in front of the Nin and pulled his ninja-to out, blocking the slash that would have taken Tazuna's face off. Tazuna backed up and Sakura got in front of him with a kunai ready while the blade of Naruto's sword got caught between the metal fingers of Meizu's gauntlet causing several sparks to fly.

"Not bad brat." Meizu chuckled as he grabbed hold of Naruto's blade and yanked the weapon out of his hands "But not good enough." He threw the blade away and took another slash at the blonde who ducked aside and lept away from him, flasing a single handseal as the demon brother chased after him, "Earth Release: Earth Flow River" He tucked into a roll as he struck the ground, a pool of slick mud formed right behind him which the charging man couldn't avoid. As Meizu slid through the brown goo he fell back, not having any traction in the soft mud. Naruto quickly got back to his feet going through a few more seals as he clapped his hands together "Wood release: Root Binding" Out of the ground hundreds of thin roots latched onto Meizu's body, pinning him, particularlly his gauntlet arm, keeping it away from the rest of his body so he wouldn't have a chace to cut himself free. Walking over to his captive he gave a swift kick to meizu's head, knocking a few brain cells loose and keeping him from retaliating.

Meanwhile in a tree overlooking the battle we find a shocked Kakashi. _'He can use Mokuton as well? Interesting...maybe I should get him and Tenzō together, that would be an interesting meeting'_ Kakashi knew that Meizu was out of the fight so he turned his attention to Sasuke.

"Stop dodging you brat!" Gōzu yelled angrily, as each of his swipes with the clawed gauntlet flew harmlessly wide, a smirking Uchiha dodging each attack.

"Not a chance bonehead." He got within Gōzu's guard and a loud buzzing noise was heard.

Gōzu looked down and noticed a small bit of chakra on the boy's pinky and thumb "What the hell is th-?" His question was cut off as the digits made contact and a harsh jolt of electricity surged through his body, causing a total loss of muscle control. He slumped bonelessly to the ground gurgling out obcenities at the Uchiha brat.

_'I have got to thank Naruto for that, that was awesome!' _A rare grin crossed Sasuke's features, marveling at what his new 'toy' could do. He tied up Gōzu and walked over to Naruto, who was looking though Meizu's equipment...to the ire of the man in question, who was throwing ever curse he knew at the 'Wood manipulating bastard.' as he put it. "Everybody alright?" he asked as he glanced over at Sakura who was still guarding Tazuna.

Sakura nodded "Ye-yeah, but what about Kakashi-sensei? He-"

"Yo." Kakashi hailed, appearing behind them in a puff of smoke.

"-Is an asshole." Naruto' finished for her

Kakashi sweatdropped, coughing to cover it. "Good job team...now that those two are taken care of..." he turned a pointed look at Tazuna who looked nervous "Just what haven't you told us Tazuna-san? And don't try to lie, I heard those two." He pierced the man with a heavy glare. "They were after you and you alone."

Tazuna looked between the four leaf ninja for a moment before sighing, "The country I come from, Wave country is under the tyrannical hold of a buisnessman named Gato-" Kakashi cut in at this point

"Wait...Gato? Of Gato shipping and transport, THAT Gato!?" Kakashi was a bit bug-eyed at the prospect, Gato was one of THE richest people in the world and from the rumors a pretty vicious person to deal with.

Tazuna scoffed "Yeah that's him, the little troll. The bastard may look like a legitamite businessman but on the inside he's a cruel criminal and dictator that controls what he has through force and money. He has a choke hold on my entire country, bleeding us dry of all of our hard earned money, leaving us with little but poverty." He sighed "This bridge I'm building is going to connect us to the mainland and break Gato's hold over our country, he knows this and will stop at nothing to kill me." He turned a pleading eye at kakashi. "Please I know I lied but you can't leave me or my country to this fate, I know I can't pay for it now but as soon as our country is liberated we can easily make the money to pay for this, we'll even pay double or tripple the amount. Just...please, all we want is to be free from this accursed bastard."

Kakashi stared at the pleading look on Tazuna's face, thinking about what to do, finally he nodded to himself and turned to his genin. "Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura. This descion is up to you. Do we stay with the mission or go back to the village?"

Naruto chuckled. "If all Gato's got is the likes of these two bit thugs." He accented that little quip with a kick to Meizu's ribs, getting a grunt and a curse from him. "Then we ain't got nothing to worry about." Sasuke nodded his agreement and Sakura reluctantly agreed as well.

"Speaking of" Sasuke interrupted, "What do we do with these two idiots?"

Kakashi sighed "Well seeing as you three have agreed to continue we'll just leave them tied up here, I'll send a message back to the village to come pick them up.

"Won't they just get loose if we tie them up?" Sakura asked.

Naruto pumped his fist "Leave that to me heh heh heh" Naruto chuckled evily, pulling out a brush and ink bottle from his pouch. The two Mist Nin struggled against their bindings but to no avail. Naruto approached Gōzu and opened his ink pot, with a slight dip and flourish he began inscribing the ink into his forehead. It was dance to those watching, a quick flick here, a thick curve there, ending in a somewhat elaborate pattern in the center of the mans forehead. Once done Naruto channeled chakra into the seal to set it. With a jolt Gōzu hit the ground unconscious, the seal setting into a small swirl pattern inside a circle. He repeated the process with Meizu who was screaming out for his brother, that is until Naruto had his roots bind his mouth and head. He finished and completed the seal on Meizu's head before storing the rest of his supplies away, the other man like his brother before him sent into sweet unconsciousness.

"What the hell was that?" Sasuke raised an eyebrow at the blonde.

"That sasuke was a containment seal" Kakashi explained, "it's a seal used by our T&I department to handle dangerous prisoners, the seal drains a captives chakra and puts them in a stasis, kind of like a coma that can only be broken by those who know how to undo the seal, it's mostly used for transports nowadays." He turned to Naruto "Let me guess, Anko?" Naruto nodded. "Very well, tie them to that tree over there and let's keep going."

The three genin nodded and did as told. A few minutes later they were back on the road, but this time they were in a diamond formation with Tazuna at its center. A few hours later they reached the shores of fire country. A small boat was docked with a single man at the oars.

"Tazuna." the man greeted them.

"Thank's again for this" Tazuna bowed to the oarsman.

"No problem, just hurry up, I wan't to get there as quickly and quietly as possible."

"Right." Tazuna nodded. Him and team 7 boarded the boat and the oarsman started the engine, setting off at a decent pace. A hour into the trip Sasuke turned to Naruto.

"Hey Naruto?"

"Yeah Sasuke?"

"I was wondering, how the hell do you know so many bloodline jutsu, as far as I know, you're an orphan, and I haven't heard of any Uzumaki clans that have a bloodline."

"That's where you're wrong Sasuke" Kakashi broke in "The Uzumaki clan was renowned for it's mastery of fuinjutsu, the seals they made were on par in not surpassing the skills of the fourth hokage himself." He took a moment to let that sink in. "But that in itself is not a bloodline, it's simply bred in skills. As for Naruto his families bloodline is Hyōton, Ice Release. Although it was rare even for the Uzumaki as they were a distant relative to the now extinct Yuki clan who were masters of Hyōton that ran strong in that tiny clan, however...due to a civil war being raged in the Land of Water where the Uzumaki were originally from the Yuki clan were entirely wiped out. That civil war has been raging for close to two decades now between the Mizukage's forces and a rebel faction of bloodline users. You see the Mizukage has been systimatically destroying any and all bloodline user clans."

Shock registered between everyone on the boat...except the rower, he didn't give a shit.

"But sensei why would the Mizukage do that?" Sakura asked.

"I don't honestly know, but from the few reports we get from Water country, bloodline users are hunted down and slaughtered on sight there, it's not a pleasant place to be."

Sasuke looked disgusted, in Konoha he was loved for his bloodline, practically worshiped. He couldn't wrap his head around being hated for that very same bloodline, being hunted down like a dog and killed for something he had no control over, the very thought sickened him. "Well that answers my question about his ice bloodline, but how in the hell is he able to use Lava and Wood Release? And for that matter, how is he able to use jutsu for those bloodlines when we don't have any Yōton or Mokuton users in the village?"

Kakashi was about to say something when Naruto interrupted him. "It's alright Sensei I got this. Sasuke the reason I can use multiple bloodlines is because of an accident I had when I was younger. You remember that explosion that woke everyone up a few nights before the Uchiha clan massacre?"

A slight bit of disgust crossed his face at the mention of the massacre but he nodded anyway, remembering the event despite the tragedy that happend less than a week later.

"That explosion was me." Que the shocked looks. "My ice bloodline activated that night and mixed in all the wrong ways with my Fox bloodline, as a result the explosion destroyed my chakra network, but due to my fox bloodline again I was able to make it back just barely from that, however something happened to my body." Naruto looked down at his hand, clenching and unclenching it as a few phantom pains went through it. "I found out later that what happened to me is called 'elemental convergence' the short explenation is when my chakra network was destroyed it became neutral. When my elementally neutral chakra network was repaired it sucked in any nearby elements and abilities, I just so happened to land in the forest of death from that explosion. When the convergence started it pretty much turned me into a human vaccum cleaner for anything nearby.

Narutorubbed the bridge of his nose absently, glancing around his hand his two other teammates. "It just so happened that the Forest of Death is an elementally unstable area and I drew in all five major elements to such a degree that I'm a damn Rikkudo Sennin knock off now, and due to that I can use all five major elements to an almost stupid degree of skill." He drew a deep breath before continuing.

"As for using bloodline elements. Well, due to my affinities I can mimic quite a few of them, however Ice and for some reason Wood are actual bloodlines. The ice was mine originally and I'm guessing that since I WAS in a forest at the time, I drew in enough of the Wood element for it to become a part of me. However I am told that the ability to use bloodline elements the way I do is, in and of itself a bloodline that can be passed down." He smiled seeing the two other genin on his team paying close attention while Kakashi was looking at him with a calculating gaze, Naruto ignored that and continued. "Sure my children may not have the affinities to all the major elements like I do, but any two elements that they may have can be used to power a bloodline. For example, say I have a child that has a fire and earth affinity. Even if he doesn't have the lava bloodline, my elemental mimicry bloodline would allow him to use it.

Again with the shocked looks, you'd think their mouths would hurt after awhile with them sitting on the floor like that...

"True, the bloodline that goes with most of those elements aren't my own but a copy can be just as deadly as an original, you'd know that, right Sasuke?" He grinned a little at the Uchiha who knew damn well what he meant. "And who's to say? Several of the doctors that looked me over said that even though I don't have those elements as a bloodline now I could theoretically develop them into one, that or my children could, due to the mimicry bloodline affecting their DNA, so the possibilities for a family of elemental masters is highly possible." he let out a chuckle "Hell, I get more shit from the councils to marry people than you do Sasuke."

The last Uchiha deadpanned, the council pushed for him to marry someone at least once every couple weeks, he could only imagine the annoyance the council provided when they pushed for that even more.

"You still haven't told us how you know specific jutsu from those elements." Sakura pointed out, trying to ignore the fact that Naruto was becoming nigh unto a god among husband material, hell the only thing he didn't have was wealth and land and that could be fixed simply by the way the blonde worked. She had watched him create a veritable army of clones and take out over a dozen D-Ranks in one day and that equaled out to be a rather high paying C-Rank mission that would normally take a month to complete. Lord only knows if he ever started taking low C-Ranks that were taken around the village. He'd be filthy rich by the end of the year. She glanced over at Sasuke who was beginning to look a little...lacking...

Naruto grinned at Sakura. "Pretty sharp there sakura, it's true I haven't explained that but I do kinda owe Sasuke's family for that one, so it's not something I brag about."

"What do you mean Naruto?" Sasuke asked curiously, if he was indebted to his family, that could help his training in the long run. Yes. Sweet, sweet blackmail...

"Well for one thing your family has been around for a long time and their jutsu library is massive, they even include the jutsu of other bloodline users. Even though they couldn't use them themselves they still catalogued everything so they know what they're fighting." He pointed a finger at sasuke. "When the Sandaime cleared out your library after the massacre so no one would mess with it he kinda let me into the bloodline section to take a look at some of the D and C-Rank jutsu in there. On top of that a few of the jutsu I've used I came up with on my own just figuring out how to manipulate that element in various ways. Honestly, it's not hard coming up with new jutsu."

The others on the boat looked at him like he was retarded, here he was talking about creating new techniques like he was talking about the weather, like it was nothing...

"What...?" Only silence answered him.

20 minutes later

"We're here" the boatman grunted out, having switched out the outboard motor to a oar earlier so they could sneak into wave country under cover of mist. The boat made dock next to an abadoned building dropping its passengers off.

"I can't thank you enough." Tazuna bowed to the rower who nodded in return.

"Just finish that bridge Tazuna-san that's all the thanks I need." The man paddled the boat back out into the mist, the four on land losing track of him as he disappeard from view.

"We better get going" Tazuna grunted. "My house isn't far from here." he made his way onto a path nearby that lead further inland.

Kakashi meanwhile was tense _'Those last guys were chunin rank ninja, if we're up against Gato then he's going to send someone much stronger, probably a jonin level nin, need to keep my senses open.'_ Naruto interrupted his thoughts when he slowed down a bit to bring himself closer to Kakashi.

"Don't worry Kakashi sensei, I got my ears and nose tuned to the area around us, if someones coming I'll let you know." It wasn't more than a whisper but it set kakashi at ease, at least a little bit.

They walked in silence for an hour, until Naruto twitched slightly flicking a shuriken into the bushes to his left.

"What is it Naruto" Kakashi spoke quickly, anything that would get the boy to act like that with his heightened senses was something dangerous.

Naruto was silent as he walked into the bushes and pulled out a snow hare who had nearly pissed itself in terror, a shuriken lodged in a tree only an inch above its head. Sakura and Tazuna relaxed but Naruto was on edge, on closer inspection of the rabbit Kakashi was too.

"They're coming" was all Kakashi said which sent everyone on edge.

"What do you mean?" Sasuke asked?

Naruto kept his senses honed on his surroundings "It's summer Sasuke, this rabbit still has it's winter fur, that means it was kept inside out of sunlight, this is a pet and whoever it's owner is..."

"They're nearby" Sasuke finished, he ground his teeth and pulled out a kunai readying himself for anything.

Well almost anything.

"GET DOWN!" Naruto yelled as he grabbed Tazuna and Sakura and pulled them to the ground, Kakashi grabbed Sasuke and yanked him down as a large blade whistled overhead, slamming blade first into a tree. Nearly downing the poor plant as a man landed on the swords handle.

"Well, well, well. A bunch of genin out on mission" The man chuckled darkly.

Naruto looked the guy up and down, the guy wasn't wearing a shirt so you could see he was built like a brick shithouse. The ninja wore a dark pair of pants with snow camo, arm and leg warmers, had his face covered in bandages and a mizu headband tied up on top of his head with the symbol scratched through signifying him as a missing-nin. All in all he looked like a badass, especially standing on his sword like that, A zanbatou if memory served.

Kakashi glared at the man. "Your reputation precedes you, Zabuza Momochi, Demon of the mist."

"And you yours, Copy-cat Kakashi." Zabuza chuckled again.

"What do you want Zabuza?" Kakashi demanded.

"Why the bridge builder of course" He pointed to the man in question who was buzy making himself as small as possible under the Missing nin's cold glare. "Hand him over and we won't have a problem."

Kakashi walked into his line of sight taking the brunt of the killing intent being directed at the old man "Sorry Zabuza, but our mission is to protect Tazuna, you want him you go through me."

He laughed "I was hoping you'd say that." As he yanked his sword out of the tree and landed on the pond nearby.

"You three stay behind me and protect Tazuna in a manji formation, this man is way beyond any of you. Looks like I'll have to go all out on this one." Kakashi reached up to his headband.

"Oh, using the Sharingan already? Im flattered."

'_Sharingan?'_ Sasuke thought, shocked by this revalation.

"Be careful, He's coming!" breaking Sasuke out of his thoughts.

The three Genin tensed, preparing for a fight... to the death if necessary.

_**-ooo-**_

**A/N OK, I just couldn't for the life of me find a place to stop writing so I soldiered on and wrote THIS!**

**Yeah, yeah, slight cliffhanger but I can't really help it, this chapter got a bit big and I didn't wan't to put too much into it. Zabuza round one NEXT CHAPTER!**

Wood release: Root Binding

D-Rank

Description: User raises roots of nearby trees to grasp and hold a target down, ineffective if there are no trees nearby.

Sealing Arts: Containment Seal.

B-rank Fuinjutsu

Description: A fairly easy seal to preform but absolutely crucial in the use of transporting prisoners by Konoha's T&I department . The seal drains it's victims chakra and uses that chakra to force the prisoner into a comotose state, can only be removed by somone who knows the correct unsealing method.


	10. Chapter 10

**UPDATE: As of right now, I've come back to FF. Since Yourfanfiction has closed down I've been looking for places to post my more adult works at. Having not found anything that is up to par with this site I have come to an impasse.  
**

******The only way I can think to get over this is to post my stories here, editing out the lemons and posting either the full chapter or just the lemons elsewhere so that you can all enjoy them. I haven't found a place just yet, but the lemons of sage along with my Stuck in an Eroge story (which also gained a fairly large following on UFF) Shall be posted when I can find a place to do so...if worst comes to worst I shall create an AFF account and post them there.**  


**Disclaimer: don't own Naruto, I do however own all the original jutsu used, that and my wonderful wonderful folder of useful tropes that I use to make my jokes **

"speech"

_'Thoughts'_

**"Kyubi speech"**

_**'Kyubi thoughts'**_

Jutsu

_**Chapter 10: Dance of the BFS.**_

Zabuza jumped back and landed on a small pond and began weaving handseals. "Water Release: Kirigakure no Jutsu!" A mist rose up from the water and smothered the area choking out all sight.

"Be careful you three, Zabuza is a master of silent killing, he doesn't need to see you to kill you in this mist, be prepared for anything and keep your senses focused."

"Oho, so you do have some experience fighting blind eh Kakashi?" Zabuza's voice echoed around them. "Eight points. Larynx, Spine, lungs, liver, jugular, subclavian artery, kidney's, heart. Hmhmhmhm which one shall I attack?" A chill went up two of the three genin's and Tazuna's spine.

Naruto however had a look of amusement on his face. "So is that a question directed at us? Can we choose which one you strike?" You could almost hear the man in the mist facevault.

Zabuza's voice sounded as if he couldn't believe what the genin had said "Kakashi, is that student of your's retarded? Or did he just get dropped too many times as a baby?"

Before Kakashi could answer Naruto quipped "Nah, I was just wondering how you'd react. And from the looks of things you don't get many people as crazy as I am." Naruto let out a little psychotic giggle that had his teammates pale, they heard that laugh before when he was training them in their change in nature ...so...much...pain...

Chuckling was heard from the mist "Heh I like this kid Kakashi, sounds like a boy after my own heart, what's your name kid?"

Naruto's grin turned feral "Naruto Uzumaki, Prank king of Konoha and all around badass at your service."

Zabuza broke out in laughter "Hahahaha cocky as hell. Yeah this kids a winner in my book, I might actually let you live after I kill all your friends, no promises though."

"Yeah yeah, heard that line before let's just do this shit!" Naruto grunted since Kyubi made that threat before, with the same result, the results being 'fuck' and 'all.'

"Impatient as well I see, heh very well."

The three genin and one Jonin tensed as the mist thickened. Naruto looked around quickly _'This is isn't good, I can't see a foot in front of my face.'_ The mist was getting even thicker as he thought this _'Dammit we need an out and quick'_

"Naruto!" Kakashi whispered harshly. "Flare your chakra, make it wind natured."

Naruto nodded and got into a horse stance, crouched with his legs spread slightly, he brought his hands into a handseal, slowly a circle of bright blue energy surrounded him, "HAAAH!" He forced as much chakra as he could into the pulse as the force of the chakra pushed the mist aside, almost like a wave the mist parted revealing Zabuza a dozen feet away with a shocked expression on his face.

"How the hell-?" he gasped

"What part of 'all around badass' didn't you get?" Naruto gasped, the strain of forcing that much chakra out draining him more than he had liked.

"Hmph, well I guess I do this the old fashioned way" He pulled his sword over his shoulder and rushed Tazuna only to be stopped by Kakashi, who blocked his overhead slash with a kunai.

"No chance Zabuza" he grunted, pushing against the heavy blade. "I won't let you hurt my students or my client."

"Well it's not like you have a choice" he replied, hopping back for another slice. The two clashed, trading deadly blows. A slice here, a chop there, coming closer and closer in a dance of death that mesmerized the three genin and Tazuna. Kakashi ducked a horizontal chop and rushed ahead his sharingan spinning wildly watching every move Zabuza made, predicting every flinch of his muscles. The only thing keeping the Swordsman of the mist from being impaled was his skill in the blade he held and the countless years of experience under his belt. He brought the Zanbatou in close and blocked the kunai with the flat of his blade diverting it to the side, with Kakashi's guard wide he leaned back, his blade acting as a balance and kicked Kakashi out onto the lake.

Kakashi cursed but it was too late as Zabuza was already on him flashing through handseals at incredible speeds. _"Water Prison Jutsu" _he yelled, a ball of water formed around Kakashi trapping him above the water with no possible way of breaking free.

"Kakashi-sensei!"

"Stay back you three!" Kakashi yelled, waving them back as best he could in the sluggishly moving water.

"Hehehe, it's over Kakashi, those brats don't stand a chance against me, and with you out of the way, this'll be almost too easy." He held up a hand in a single handsign as his other hand was holding the water prison. _"Water Clone Jutsu!" _A puddle of water on land slowly started to rise taking on Zabuza's form.

_'Dammit I knew he was good, but this...?'_ Kakashi was horrified "Run you three! You can't beat him with all this water around you, and that clone of his can't stray too far from the main body. Take Tazuna and run!"

Looks of shock crossed their faces, they couldn't just leave their sensei behind. Naruto made their opinions vocal.

"Hell no!" He yelled, "This mission was fubar the moment you got trapped, we either help you now and die trying or get hunted down and killed anyway, at least this way there's a chance, now shut up and hang on, we'll have you out of there in a moment."

Zabuza snickered "Quite the cocky set of brats you got there Kakashi, I do like the blondie though."

Kakashi's Sharingan was keyed on the standoff. Silently, he was praying for his students safety _'Hopefully Naruto has a plan for this, knowing his bloodline abilities he could pull it off, but Zabuza has over a decade of training over them all.'_ his eye flashed over the three of them _'Please be careful.'_

"Sasuke." Naruto whispered.

"Yeah Naruto?" he replied back in a whisper the two moving closer so as not to draw attention.

"I got a plan and I need your help." Sasuke nodded and leaned in closer, Naruto started whispering in his ear, for a moment shock crossed his face, then a grin began to form, slowly growing.

"You are one crazy son of a bitch you know that?"

"Tell me something I don't know?" Naruto joked.

"My mom was bisexual." Sasuke not so joked.

"DIDN'T WANT TO KNOW THAT!"

"You asked..." he deadpanned. Naruto facepalmed, and the collective IQ of the world dropped with that statement.

"Whatever let's just get this over with" He pulled his Ninjato off his back and glared daggers at the Zabuza clone, "Remember the plan Sasuke."

"Don't worry, we got this" He replied bring out a kunai.

The two shot forward weaving between each other trying to throw the Zabuza clone off. Naruto slashed at Zabuza's legs, who brought his Zanbatou down to block the debilitating strike, Naruto smirked and held up a hand in a single handseal, a dozen Naruto's appeared around Zabuza and tried to strike with their shadow Ninjato's but Zabuza jumped back and swung his sword in a wide arc, cutting through the clones like smoke.

"Now Sasuke!" Naruto yelled, bracing himself on the ground.

"Right!" He growled back placing a foot on Naruto's back as he leapt high into the air, tossing several shuriken to keep Zabuza on his toes the Last Uchiha fell at the missing Nin with both hands charged with a tazer.

The water clone brought it's sword up to block with the flat of the blade, Sasuke could only smirk as both his hands touched the blade. A violent arc of electricity coursed down the blade to the clones arm. The twin tazers shocked the water clone from head to foot causing it to burst into a puddle of water.

Zabuza chuckled from his position next to Kakashi "Those kids aren't half bad, that one already has a decent grasp at elemental jutsu."

"You have no idea..." Kakashi mumbled which earned him an odd look from Zabuza.

"Alright Sasuke, phase two GO!" Naruto rushed to the waters edge, flashing through handsign's as he Gathered a massive amount of chakra, he slammed his palms onto the edge of the water and shouted "Ice Release: Frozen Wave!"

Zabuza's eye's flew wide "I-Ice Release?" He gasped, too shocked to even notice that Naruto had flash frozen the lakes surface, and Zabuza's feet to the ice.

Meanwhile in a nearby tree hidden from view and watching the battle a young voice gasped as well "But that's my..." The voice couldn't say anymore, it only watched the fight with much more interest, keeping a closer eye on the blonde boy.

Back with the battle Zabuza was cursing. Looking down he saw his feet were firmly frozen to the ice, he turned his eyes back to the genin only to see Sasuke throwing several Kunai at him, most of them wouldn't have been much danger to him but one in particular was heading right for his face. With another curse he yanked away from the kunai dodging all of them, but in doing so released the water prison jutsu. With a quick swing of his sword he had broken away from the ice and jumped back from the two children and the newly freed Kakashi who was hacking up a mouthful of water.

"So blondie has Hyōton as well eh? That kid just got ALOT more interesting." Zabuza flicked a few more chunks of ice off his foot and got into a ready battle position with his blade down and to his side.

Kakashi spat up the water and got to his feet. "You (huff) won't lay a hand (huff) on Naruto, Zabuza." he wiped water from his mask and pulled another kunai out "You three have done enough, stay back and protect Tazuna"

"But Kakashi sensei-" Sakura began

"No but's" Kakashi growled, he turned a glare on the demon of the mist. "That same trick won't work on me twice Zabuza" The man in question only raised an eyebrow, which looked kind of funny with his lack of eyebrows and all...

"Big talk for a waterlogged scarecrow, come get some then." He egged Kakashi on. In a flash the two were crossing blades again, this time Kakashi seemed to be on even footing as most of the water Zabuza used for his water jutsu was frozen underfoot. Zabuza noticed this "Hehehe so an even battle eh? Fine by me!" He pushed forward on the back of the blade and forced Kakashi back.

"Kakashi-sensei" Naruto yelled. The Jonin glanced to the side for a a split second to catch Naruto's Ninjato, he nodded his quick thanks and brought the sword to bear just in time to catch a downward cut from Zabuza's zanbatou. With a crunch the ice below Kakashi buckled but held under the pressure of the clashing blades.

"Give it up Kakashi, in a battle of swordsmanship you can't beat a Swordsman of the mist!" Zabuza growled, kicking the jonin away and holding his Zanbatou up to point at Kakashi.

"That may be Zabuza but I'm not just using a sword..." Kakashi flipped through several handseals with the sword still in hand and gripped his right wrist. The air around Kakashi slowly started to glow as a harsh crackling sound filled the air.

"What the hell is that?" Zabuza asked eyes wide at the sight.

"Raikiri! My own original jutsu." Kakashi growled, the lightning element chakra forming a circle of energy around him. "And your death."

Zabuza went into a deep kenjutsu stance both hands on his blade, it was a purely defensive stance. _'The hell is with his hand? You can almost see the chakra there...what an insanely powerful technique.'_ He tensed when Kakashi rushed him _'Need to stay on my toes, one hit from that and I'm gone...'_

Zabuza blocked the ninjato and spun out of the way of the Raikiri, the trailing edge of the technique, nicking him from the sheer concentrated power.

_'Holy shit! Definitely stay away from that.'_ and like a dance their duel resumed Kakashi leading with the ninjato while he used his Raikiri to keep Zabuza on his toes, both opponents knowing he only needed one strike to finish things.

Meanwhile Naruto and the others were watching the fight with awe, Naruto and Sasuke were getting a tingling in their hands, they knew that the Raikiri was just a step in magnitude above the tazer in power and concentration. The two Genin looked at each other and flashed a devilish grin between them, a silent agreement to try and copy the technique together. Turning back to the fight, they were shocked to see Zabuza actually putting up a decent defense, that is until Kakashi stopped leading with the ninjato, he switched leading hands at the last moment shocking Zabuza who had brought the flat of the blade up to block. The mist nin watched in horror as his blade was snapped off right above the in-curve of the blade, Kakashi used his shock to land a slash across his shoulder, severing the muscle there and causing the not so heavy Zanbatou to the ground. Before Zabuza could get back and lose ground a heel to his sternum sent him into a nearby tree, not a moment later four kunai lodged into each one of his limbs temporarily crippling him, and if he didn't get medical attention, permanently.

"It's over Zabuza" Kakashi laid the edge of the ninjato against Zabuza's jugular, his Sharingan lazily spinning, only for that eye to widen in horror as a pair of senbon pierced the missing nin's neck, apparently killing him instantly.

Zabuza's eyes bulged sickly as he slumped to the ground, Kakashi turned quickly bringing the ninjato up in a reverse grip defense, but he lowered it a moment later when a short nin in a hunter mask dropped down from the trees.

"Thank you for your help" The youth's voice called out, the pitch of the voice and the size of the body meaning the nin couldn't be much older than Naruto and the others. "I hope you didn't mind me taking the initiative and killing Zabuza myself, he had become quite the elusive target and I wanted the satisfaction of putting him out of his misery myself.

Kakashi knelt down and placed a pair of fingers against his jugular to feel for a pulse. There wasn't one. _'Really dead'_ Kakashi mused. Standing up he turned again to the hunter-nin "It is no problem hunter-nin-san."

"Oh so you know of the Kiri hunter nin's?" You could almost see the hunters eyebrow raised behind the mask. The figure stood a bit taller "Yes I am a Kiri hunter nin, Zabuza has been my target for quite some time, it's taken me a good 6 months to track the man down to Wave but I can finally call this mission completed. You have my thanks" The Nin bowed and shunshined to the body, Kakashi backed away, he still kept his Sharingan out in case this was some kind of trick but when the nin vanished with the body he relaxed and covered the eye with his headband. He turned to his team and eyesmiled...then fell flat on his face.

_'Must have overused the Sharingan'_ He remarked dryly as his team called out his name in worry. "Don't worry you three I just have chakra exhaustion"

"Then we better get to my home so you can rest" Tazuna offered.

Everyone nodded...except Kakashi, who was finding it hard to even breath at the moment...and what a time to have an itch that he couldn't scratch...

_**-ooo-**_

"Are you alright?" A young woman looked down at the bed-ridden Jonin.

"I am fine Tsunami-san."Kakashi said weakly. The young woman above him was a fair sight to behold to the exhausted man, and she was quite the looker too. He mentally let out a little pervy giggle as he waved the woman off. "Just give me a weeks rest and I'll be back to my old self."

"Yeah we can't have you getting even more lazy than you already are" Naruto teased the cyclops, who gave him a blank glare.

"Kakashi-sensei, just who was that ninja earlier?" Sakura asked.

"That, Sakura, was a hunter-nin." he turned his eye to stare at the girl. "Each village has a division of hunter-nin, however that particular nin was apart of Kiri's hunter forces. Kiri's hunter's are infamous for their brutal and meticulous methods."

"Just why would they need a hunter-nin anyway?"

"That is an interesting question Sakura, the main reason for hunters are to go out and capture or dispose of, missing ninja, you see, just because you kill someone doesn't mean their secrets die with them." He held up a single shaky finger. "Take my Sharingan for instance. If I were to be killed and my body taken, someone with enough time and patience could theoretically learn the secrets of the Sharingan and replicate them, it wouldn't be an exact copy but just think for a moment." His eye hardened "A village that can give its entire shinobi population the ability to copy jutsu on the fly with no repercussion to its use?" The thought sent shivers down their spines. "Exactly. That is what hunter nin are for. They go out find nuke nin and if they can capture the nin, they'll take the secrets back with them. If not, they destroy the body on the spot." he let his hand fall, the explanation over.

Meanwhile in a secluded wooded area the masked hunter nin was working over the body of Zabuza.

"Let's see, first the wrappings" The nin grabbed a pair of clippers from the tool roll laid out next to Zabuza. The hunter was about to cut the bandages off Zabuza's face when a hand reached out and gripped the offending limb tightly.

"That's enough Haku, I can handle this part!" he gasped out.

"Oh awake are you? I'm surprised, normally you'd still be out for another hour." The newly named Haku joked.

"Very funny" The Missing nin grouched slowly dragging himself to a sitting position, still felling the senbon in his neck he grasped the weapons and with a viscous yank that sent blood spraying everywhere the two barbs were pulled free.

Haku placed a gentle hand on Zabuza's shoulder, "Please Zabuza-sama, please don't yank those out like that or you really will end up dead."

Zabuza looked up at his apprentices face, which was covered by the emotionless hunter mask, that mask had always irked the ex-ANBU Kiri-nin not because of what it symbolized but that it was something that dredged up ghosts far gone and better left forgotten. He didn't waste time voicing his displeasure. "Haku, take off that damn mask already will you." The young hunter-nin nodded and pulled the mask off revealing a surprisingly beautiful face underneath.

"So what now Zabuza-sama?" The teen was curious, just what were they going to do, Kakashi was a problem, but so were the two boys that were with him, and judging by the skill levels of the boys the girl was most likely skilled as well.

"For now? Nothing. I need to get back to full strength." He growled, struggling to his feet. "After that, we go and kill the bridge builder. Simple as that."

"What about the boy with Hyōton?" Haku asked curious, If he had Hyōton then, maybe...

"I'll think of something" Haku could only nod and follow along with his plans.

The two nin made their way back to their hideout, to heal...and plan.

_**-ooo-**_

Kakashi's eyes flew wide and shot up from his futon startling everyone in the room. _'What was that feeling'_ Kakashi's hand shook as he placed it over his face in shock _'I'm getting seriously bad vibes from this, just why the hell does it feel like I'm missing something, I know Zabuza is dead, I felt his pulse...wait...'_

"Kakashi-sensei, what's wrong? Naruto asked.

"Dammit"Kakashi sighed, "Hunter-nin are trained to destroy the bodies of the ones they kill on the spot..."

"You got that feeling too" Naruto asked. Kakashi nodded making Naruto 'tsk' in annoyance.

"Yeah, and?" Sakura asked confused where her sensei was going with this.

"What happened to Zabuza's body?" Kakashi asked out of the blue.

Sakura tilted her head questioningly "Uh I don't know the hunter nin took it away."

"Now why would a hunter-nin who was taught to destroy a body on the spot move a body much larger than them? And on top of that, what did the hunter use to kill Zabuza?"

Sasuke thought a moment _'senbon, used for acupuncture...'_ his eyes widened "No way."

"Way, Sasuke" Naruto Grimaced, "I had a feeling about it after Kakashi explained what a hunter was earlier, but I didn't think much of it until just now when Kakashi felt it too.

"Yeah, we fucked up." Kakashi sighed "It's highly likely...that Zabuza is still alive..."He trailed off as both Tazuna and Sakura gasped.

"But how? You checked yourself." Sakura said fearfully.

"Senbon Sakura, senbon." Naruto sighed. "Senbon, when used correctly can do any number of things. For someone of hunter-nin skill it's childs play putting someone in a death like state." Kakashi nodded.

"What Naruto said is true. If Zabuza truly is alive we need to be on our toes until we can prove otherwise. Regardless, we still need to keep an eye out for any other people Under Gatō's employ."

"It's not like it matter's anyway..." a voice said. Everyone in the room turned to a young boy who was just walking in the door.

"Inari!" Tsunami smiled "Where have you been all this time?"

"Hey mom, I was out for a walk." he turned to Tazuna "Hey gramps, welcome home." He walked over and gave the old man a hug, all in all it was a sickeningly cute display of affection...well it would be if the little brat wasn't looking at the ninja in the room with an apathetic glare.

"Inari, these are these ninja protected your grandpa, please greet them properly" Tsunami chided.

"But mom, they're just gonna die, they cant beat Gatō."

Naruto snorted at that. Inari turned to him with a glare.

"What's so funny?" he demanded.

Naruto chuckled for a few seconds before breaking out into full on laughter.

"What's so funny?" He demanded again, this time with a harsh edge to his voice.

"You are kid." Naruto laughed, wiping a single tear from his eye. Before Inari could bitch Naruto cut him off. "Kid, telling us that we're gonna die is like telling your gramps over there that he's gonna get a hangover from drinking too much. The only difference is we don't know when we'll die while your gramps knows damn well when he'll get a hangover" He laughed again. "Kid, we're ninja, dying is apart of the job description. We are born and raised to fight, kill and die. For our friends, family and country." his grin turned into a bit of a glare "However, thinking we'll die to some little troll like Gatō is insulting. That bastard doesn't have anything going for him but his money, from what your gramps has told us the dude is as short as you are, he has NOTHING to fight us with himself, he hires his power."

"Then..." Inari began, suddenly feeling a bit out of his league in the argument.

"Nope, wrong again" Naruto cut him off. "We just came out of a battle with an A-class missing-nin and arguably one of the best swordsmen in the elemental nations. If that big of a bastard cant kill this team who do you think will? We're not gonna die that easily kid, if you think that then we can take this outside and I'll show you a thing or two about ninja."

Inari had a look of shock on his face at how blatantly his beliefs had been thrown in his face. He grit his teeth in anger at Naruto, mentally cursing the blonde bastard. "Who do you think you are? You have no right to come in here and talk that way to us, do you have any idea how badly we've suffered under that bastards rule? A ninja like you who probably has had it good all his life what do you know o-" The rest of his words were cut off along with most of his air as a hand gripped his throat, it wasn't a tight grip, just enough to shut him up and hold him off the ground.

"Inari! Naruto!" The people in the room yelled.

**"Shut up and back off!" **Naruto growled at everyone in the room, his voice sounding slightly deeper as a bit of Kyuubi's chakra ran through his veins in anger. **This kid nee**ds a reality check." He tossed Inari on his ass "You want to know how 'Good'" he spat the word "My life was?" The anger in his voice made Inari shake in fear. "You have a family, a home, three square meals." He threw his hands around the room to point this fact out. "Me? I'm an orphan, I didn't have any parents or family, I lived in an orphanage filled with spiteful people who would have seen me starve. I had to dig through trash and steal to even live. As for the villagers, nearly EVERYONE in my village despises me." He spat a curse at a few choice people. "For the first seven years of my life I got glared at and ostracized by the very people I now protect, you want to call your life unfair? How about this? At seven years old I was nearly MURDERED by the villagers I'm protecting, and it took me KILLING a dozen of them and nearly DYING in the process to find someone who shared my lot in life, that woman took me in and I've been what you MIGHT call happy if you'd get your head out of you ass. Life SUCKS kid, get used to it and grow up." He flipped off the room and walked to the door. "If any of you value your life you'll stay the hell away, you too Kakashi I don't want to have to explain your death to Jiji." He slammed the door behind him, a few minutes of silence passed before what sounded like dozens of explosions and the loud snapping of trees broke the silence.

"Ka-Kakashi-sensei... Is everything Naruto said true" Sakura whimpered a little bit as an angry yell ripped through the night while bits of what sounded like splinters hit the roof of the house.

Kakashi sighed. "Yes Sakura, it was all true." His eye turned sad for a moment. "Naruto's younger years were quite bad honestly, there was never really anything physical...aside from that the villagers have done everything they can to destroy him, his life hasn't been-"

Everyone in the room jumped when a piece of tree impaled itself in the front door.

"-Good" Kakashi finished. Sighing once again before laying back in his bed. The third had said that Naruto was a tad touchy when it came to his early years...but this? Best to give the boy time to work of his frustration else he'd find a hole somewhere he didn't want it from the collateral damage. Another explosion rocked the night ... _'Yeah, give him a day or two...' _Kakashi sweatdropped...

_**-ooo-**_

**Not much to say for now, till next time.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Ok peeps, next chapter up.**

**Now for what you've all been waiting for, the meeting of Naruto and girl numba tres, Haku. Hopefully I can make this original _.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto dammit, quit asking!**

**-ooo-**

"speech"

_'Thoughts'_

**"Kyubi speech"**

_**'Kyubi thoughts'**_

_**-ooo-**_

_**Chapter 11: Chance meetings.**_

It had been two days since Naruto's little blow up. It was nighttime as we find our blonde hero sitting in a shallow crater surrounded by several mauled trees. To say he had been 'creative' in their destruction would have been an understatement, as even in a rage Naruto used the time to test new abilities. He looked around for a moment taking in the site of the destroyed clearing, there were several trees that had holes bored through them with scorched edges from a rather interesting combination of lightning and wind natured chakra. He'd read about storm release which worked mostly the same way but that was a water/lightning kekkei genkai. This was something different as the piercing power of lightning mixed with the cutting power of wind. It was odd watching the wind chakra spiral around the lightning chakra and it created something pretty fucking dangerous. He tilted his head to the side slightly to get a better look at the tree behind the one full of holes, sure enough the tree behind that had a matching set, and the tree behind that...and the tree behind that...to continue off out of sight.

Thinking he might have overdone that jutsu a bit he looked down to his poor singed tail which was free of his pants as he had wanted to see if his clones training with the thing had paid off. To an extent would be a good description. He had found that by channeling a jutsu through his tail he could call forth skills through said appendage, for instance, going through seals and smacking the ground with his tail to throw up an earth wall, or smacking a tree with a tazer infused tail. All in all it was a productive blow up if he did say so himself...as he passed out from exhaustion.

_**-Morning-**_

Haku was humming a nice tune as she walked through the forest, it was one of the few places that she could just relax, it was quiet, peaceful even. But like all things, peace being one of them, it was simply a temporary thing. She had come to find herbs to help Zabuza recover from the paralysis she had placed him under, it was her lot in life to serve the man, after all he had saved her, raised her as his own and taught her everything she needed to know to be an effective tool for him, to be used...and abused at his whim. Thankfully the very few abuses had been near death experiences due to her career choice, and not from anything more sinister. Walking for a few more minutes she found herself in the clearing that had some of the best herbs she needed...only to find half of it was destroyed. She gasped when she noticed a familiar blonde boy in the middle of a small crater near the center of the clearing.

_'It's him...'_ She thought, her heart beginning to race at the possibilities, if this boy had Hyōton, could he really be...family? The thought seemed foreign to her, she approached him slowly, careful to make sure he wasn't tricking her. _'What should I do, he could be family, but he's also Zabuza's enemy.'_ before she realized it she had reached her hand out towards the boy, whether to strangle him or wake him she didn't know. She made to pull back but the boy had apparently sensed the mixed intent in her actions and a hand shot from the side and grabbed her arm. The boy shot up at his subconscious action and glared around bleary eyed as sunlight filled his vision.

Haku meanwhile nearly jumped out of her skin as she had barely registered the hang grabbing hold of her or the boy moving for that matter. _'Such speed?' _She flinched visibly at the contact.

Naruto only now coming to his senses noticed the girl in front of him, or more specifically the hand that was grabbing the girl's wrist. With a quick apology he released her and backed away a bit.

Haku quickly lowered in a small bow "I'm sorry if I startled you, I was just checking to see if you were alright. It's not good to sleep out in the open like that."

Naruto on the other hand was shocked at how pretty the girl in front of him was, sure she wasn't Anko...not many people were that crazy after all... but she had her own beauty to her. Shaking his head to clear his thoughts as her words caught up to him. "Uhh, no problem. Sorry if I hurt you or anything, I usually don't react like that when I sleep." He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

She smiled "Don't worry, I may not look like much but I can protect myself just fine."

_'Wow she's got such a nice smile, weird though, why does she seem so familiar?'_ he took in a deep breath of morning air, what looked like a yawn was secretly him testing the scents around him. _'Seriously why does she put me on edge?'_

**"Maybe it's because shes that damn Hunter-nin you met the other day?"** Kyuubi growled inside his head.

Naruto's eyes bugged comically but he quickly calmed himself realizing if this girl knew who he was then she could easily kill him if he wasn't expecting it. Hell maybe that was why his hand acted the way it did, she might have tried to choke him in his sleep.

Haku noted Naruto's expression curiously "Something wrong?" she asked one of her hands tensing in anticipation.

"No." He said quickly, "I just realized that I've been out here for two days. My sensei is probably gonna kick my ass when I get back" He chuckled nervously.

"Sensei? Are you a ninja?" Her hand relaxed a little bit.

Naruto chuckled "Yep, the names Naruto Uzumaki, and do you think a normal person could have done all this?" He made a small motion with one of his hands indicating the destroyed clearing.

"I suppose not...What are you doing out here anyway?" She asked, _'Besides destroying a perfectly nice clearing.'_ Mentally rolling her eyes.

"Well...heh heh...I guess I was training. I kinda blew up on the clients kid and walked off so I wouldn't kill someone, I guess I took it out on the trees...at least they died for a good cause." He rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment and laughed when he noticed that the girl had that look on her face that meant it was a bullshit excuse. "Hey just why are you out here miss...?"

"Haku. My name is Haku, and speaking of the forest, I came out here to gather herbs for a friend of mine, this clearing had several of the herbs I needed." She raised an eyebrow at Naruto accusingly.

"Uhh...sorry?" He apologized sheepishly. "If you want I could have this place fixed up in a sec."

"Oh? And just how do you plan to do that?" She placed her hands on her hips as if waiting for him.

"You might need to move a little bit so you don't get caught up in this." As she backed off from the clearing Naruto used a simple earth jutsu to fill in the holes in the clearing, then running through several elaborate sets of seals he slammed his palms together "Wood Release: Restoration!" The air around Naruto started to buzz as the trees and plant life started to grow, the trees full of holes from Naruto's earlier experiments filled in leaving no trace from their abuse. After a minute or so the clearing was even more vibrant than before, with many lush fruit bearing trees and herb plants dotting the edges.

Haku stood back and watched the transformation with wide eyes _'Mokuton as well? Just who...or better yet WHAT the hell is he?'_ She was shaken from her amazement by the boy in question waving a hand in front of her face.

"Haku, helloooo?"

"What?" She started.

"You were spacing out there. Anything wrong?" There was a genuine concern in his voice, despite the two being enemies, Haku was starting to grow on him. She was nice if a bit too polite.

"N-no. Nothings wrong."

"Good" He flashed one of his large smiles which made Haku blush slightly...wait blush?

Haku was having the weirdest reaction to the boy, she felt a bit hot, steamy even. It started at her toes and worked its way up, she felt comfortable around him, even more so than with Zabuza himself! "W-Well I better pick the herbs I need for my friend, I've been out here longer than I should have."

"Ok, I'll help you" He threw her a thumbs up and the two went to work gathering the herbs she needed, every once in awhile Naruto would ask about a certain plant and its uses to which Haku answered the best she could, all in all it was a pleasant experience for the both of them.

Standing up to wipe the sweat from her brow, Haku sighed "That should be enough" The small basket in her hands was filled to the brim with herbs. She turned and smiled to Naruto "Thank you for helping me, it was fun while it lasted."

"Oh, it was no big deal." Naruto grinned back. "It would be a crime not to help a pretty girl like you"

Haku couldn't hold it anymore as she let out a laugh. It wasn't a loud laugh but it held an honest humor to it, like she was pushing aside all her troubles and just enjoying the moment. "I had fun today, I wish I could stay but my friend needs these herbs soon, I'll be seeing you." She turned and walked away but almost as an afterthought she stopped, "Oh, and by the way, I'm a guy." before continuing on her way.

**"An obvious lie" **Kyuubi mentally snorted, **"You can practically FEEL her attraction for you, she's just making shit up so she doesn't have to face you." **Naruto raised an eyebrow at the retreating girl **" If she's attracted to you, go work your heroic mojo on her hehehehe" ** Naruto flashed a little grin at that, if this lady had the hots for him maybe they wouldn't have to fight Zabuza after all. Naruto snuck up on the retreating girl a crazy plan forming in his mind.

Naruto slipped his arms around the girl and felt her stiffen in shock.

"Naruto-san w-what are you do-"

"You think a lie like that can fool me Haku-chan? Or should I call you Hunter-chan instead?"

_'Oh Kami, he knows'_ Haku shook a little bit in the boy's grasp, he had his arms around hers so even if she put up a fight she couldn't make use of her arms if he tightened his grip.

Naruto could feel her shaking and decided to mess with her a little bit. Grinning, he spoke flippantly. "I could smell you the entire time, so don't think you can fool my nose Haku-_Chan_ you are definitely NOT a guy."

_'Oh no, he knows I'm...Wait what?' _ She thought curiously _'He has me right where he want's me and he's making light of me telling him I'm a guy?'_ She stopped shaking for a moment _ 'Doesn't he want information from me. Use me as a hostage. Anything?'_ She turned slightly to look over her shoulder to see the blonde grinning from ear to ear. _'The hell? He looks like he just played a prank on someone.'_ The girl would have facepalmed if she could _'Of course, he tricked ME...but what is he playing at?'_

Naruto let Haku sweat a little trying to figure out his little game but after a moment of brain wracking he could tell the girl had no idea what he wanted so instead of her asking something of him, he asked her. "So who are you really Haku-chan?" He poked the girl in the stomach a couple times to get her attention. "If you're strong enough to be a hunter nin at your age then you've definitely got something going for you."

Haku froze, clearly it was an innocent question but having lived as a missing nin for most of her life, it left her cautious. "W-what do you mean Naruto-san...?"

Naruto frowned at her hesitation, finally he sighed "Look Haku, despite what you may think, we aren't enemies." An eyebrow rose at that proclamation. "If I can find a way to keep us from fighting each other I'd gladly go down that path even if it's more difficult that just outright fighting you. Fighting is pointless unless you're doing it to protect."

Haku shivered despite herself, that was dangerously close to her way of thinking. She could have pushed away from him, could have fought back, could have done a bunch a things but something was making her trust him, just him holding her was making her feel hot, like he was just radiating warmth and kindness. Despite herself she started speaking shakily of her past, about how she had nearly been killed by her father after he killed their mother, Of her meeting Zabuza and of her ice power.

When she had spoken of her use of Hyōton, Naruto froze. _ 'The hell, I thought __Hyōton__ was extinct. I should be the only person who can use it.'_

Kyuubi cut in. **"Did you forget that Kakashi said it was a bloodline of two clans? Since she's nothing like your mother or Mito and judging by her story she can only be of the other clan, the Yuki Clan...if that's the case that makes you...what? distant cousins? Huh, one of your first true enemies and its a family member...go figure."**

Naruto frowned at that. "Haku...do you remember the name of your clan, did your mother ever speak of it?"

Haku looked up from her explanation to notice the frown on the boy's face. She felt uncomfortable under his scrutiny. "S-she spoke of it only once so that I would understand my past, it was one of the last things she did before she died."

"The name, Haku! What was the name?" He spoke a bit more forcefully.

"I-it was Yuki." she said fearfully at his tone, but relaxed when his face softened, though he still had an odd look on his face. "Is something wrong Naruto?"

Naruto relaxed his grip and spun the girl around in his arms, when they were face to face he enveloped her in a hug. "Aside from the fact that the two of us are family, no. Everything is just fine." You could hear a slight whimper in his voice.

Haku's eyes widened as she froze in his arms. "Wha...?"

"The Uzumaki clan and the Yuki clan are related, I-it's the reason why I can use Hyōton Haku. If I were to guess we'd be c-cousins." Naruto's voice hitched a couple times as he tried to grasp that he actually had some family left in this world.

Haku meanwhile just stood there with the shaking boy holding on to her for dear life, _'So I was right, we are related...and he feels so vulnerable right now'_ She tentively reached out her hands and returned the hug which made the boy stiffen a bit. Haku frowned at that _'That's an odd response to a hug, even if it wasn't expected, it's like he's not used to affection, or at least not from someone like me, and judging from the way he's acting towards me...he must have been an orphan as well...'_

Naruto felt Haku's hands on his back and immediately tensed up, it wasn't like Anko hadn't hugged him like this over the years, it's just with so many emotions running through his head he hadn't expected her to return his affections quite so readily. A pat on the back? Sure. But to return his hug even if it was half hearted filled him with hope. Now more than ever he had made up his mind to avoid the fight with Zabuza...but how? "Haku-chan?" He asked slowly.

Haku looked up into the blondes eyes and saw a curious look in his eyes, it was a calculating look she had seen many times over the years. "You're trying to figure out a way for us to avoid fighting, right?" Naruto nodded. "Sigh...that is going to be difficult then. Zabuza has never been one to back down, especially if he's been beaten before by the one he's going up against." She sighed again "Not to mention Gatō has something that Zabuza needs more than just about anything else."

"What could that scumbag have that Zabuza doesn't?" Naruto's voice was filled with disgust, but he said almost as an afterthought. "Money not withstanding of course"

"Information Naruto...kun" She thought on the suffix for a second before nodding to herself, -kun would do just fine for him. "I can understand your hatred for the man, I personally don't like him either, but he has information that can help Zabuza in his goals and I am his tool to help him achieve his goals"

Naruto frowned when he heard Haku call herself a tool, she had said it so matter of fact, like it was just the way things were. Well to hell with how things were, she was family dammit and like hell his family would be used by someone else. "Haku, we may not be enemies, but speak about yourself like that again and I just may have to kill the man who put those thoughts into your head" He held the girl tighter which shocked the ice mistress, the venom in his voice at such a simple thing made her shiver. "You are not a tool Haku...I don't care if you see yourself as one. I don't. And like hell I'm letting someone use my family and just discard them like one."

Again Haku felt the warm feeling spread through her body. Just what was it that made her feel like this?

The two of them sat down next to one of the trees Naruto had abused. Naruto had his arm around Haku's side, holding her close. "Haku, if the only thing Gatō has over your heads is information, why not just beat it out of him, from the description people gave me the guy is a shimp even by shimp standards, hell one of our second year academy students could probably kick his ass."

Haku frowned. "It's against Zabuza's policy, never harm the client unless they give you a reason. Most villages go by that standard."

Naruto thought about that for a moment before a devious smile crossed Naruto's face. "Then why not give Zabuza a reason."

Haku raised an eyebrow. "Just how would we do that?"

Naruto's smile grew wider which made the corners of his eyes crinkle a little. Haku could only shiver.

_**-ooo-**_

Most people in the world viewed Gatō Shipping and Transport as a legitimite business, but underneath the clean exterior we see what it truly is, a corrupt and powerful corperation hell bent on making as much money as possible, regardless of who's life they have to ruin or what country they have to cripple. We find the corporation's namesake sitting behind his desk going over documents that would, in essence lay the final stone for his movement into the mainland, it was a grand scheme that would gain him even more power and influence in the elemental nations. However, before he could finalize any of it a frantic knock came to his door.

"Enter" he growled, angry at the disturbance.

A young thug rushed in breathing hard. "S-sir! All of our men in the city are missing!"

"WHAT!" Gatō jumped up from his chair, slamming his hand on the table in front of him, several of his important papers flying off.

"That's not all sir, many of the operations in the village are at a standstill, the brothels and the protection money offices are destroyed."

"Send out the men and comb the village! Find whoever did this and end them!" Gatō stood up and grabbed his cane. Throwing on his coat he walked passed the underling, his two samurai body guards Zōri and Waraji falling into step behind him.

"Sir where are you going." The underling asked.

He turned to look back at the little pissant "I'm going to see Zabuza, only a ninja could have pulled this cluster fuck off, and the only ninja I know of that are nearby are that team from Konoha and that asshole Zabuza. I'm just going to make sure which side he's on and to dangle a nice juicy carrot in front of his face if he isn't." before he walked out the door.

_**-ooo-**_

Meanwhile two shadows watched the short mans departure. One a girl who was just staring at how easy this all was and the other was a boy who was grinning like a loon.

"That was simple enough." Haku deadpanned.

Naruto chuckled. "Oh that's nothing yet, I make breaking into ANBU headquarters and dumping itching powder into their uniforms an art form. Getting a stuck up selfish bastard like Gatō to second guess himself is childs play." He tilted his head in her direction "You know your part in this right Haku?" He flashed her one of his ear to ear grins which had that wonderful warming effect on her and made her knees turn to jelly. She nodded quickly and using a mist shunshin, making her way back to their hideout. She had a part to play and if she was going to spend time getting to know her family in the foreseeable future she needed to make it believable.

_**-ooo-**_

"What took you so long Haku?" Zabuza growled, spread prone on the bed in the middle of the room, it was really the only piece of furniture aside from the couch and dresser in the large cocoon shaped hideout.

"I had a few errands to run Zabuza-sama." She bowed her head slightly to the man. "I picked the herbs needed to cure the temporary paralysis and-"

"Well well well." A snide voice echoed around the two missing nin. Haku's face turned to one of distaste since there was only one person she knew of that could be that pompous, even if she knew he was coming it didn't change the fact that she despised Gatō. She turned to take in the man's appearance, he was wearing his casual suit today, along with his cane he was as scummy looking as a crooked businessman could be. Any thoughts she had against double-crossing her client flew out the window in the face of the man's arrogance, he literally walked into the mist nin's hideout like he owned the place...well technically he did own the place but thats besides the point...

"To think, this is how far the Demon of the hidden mist has fallen? And they called you one of the best. Feh, praise wasted if you ask me." Gatō walked forward with that shit eating grin on his face. "You couldn't even take care of one team from Konoha. Hell most of em are snot nosed brats, makes me think you don't want the information I have Zabuza."

The Mist nin narrowed his eyes at the corrupt businessman. He needed that information if he was going to fulfill his promise, and nothing was going to stand in his way. "Just keep that info ready and waiting Gatō, I'll have that bridge builders head on a platter soon enough."

Gatō snorted in amuzement. "You'd better. One more slip up and you'll be out on your asses, I've gone to alot of effort keeping those hunter-nin away from here, prove to me that you're worth the trouble." He turned and walked away a satisfied grin on his face.

As the door to their hideout slammed closed Zabuza let out a growl and slammed a hand down on the bed "That arrogant bastard." A few minutes of silence passed as the mind of the Demon of the mist wandered.

"Zabuza-sama?" Haku cut into his musings. "Why don't we just torture Gatō for the information? It wouldn't be hard..." She looked at her mentor who stared back at her with a calculating scowl.

"I know how easy it would be, but you know my rules. Don't harm the client unless provoked...and besides we may need his help later on." Zabuza sighed "Just deal with it a little longer Haku we'll kill him eventually."

"Maybe sooner than you think" A voice called out from the shadows of the room.

"Who's there?" Zabua growled, though Haku already knew who it was.

"Oh, you know." Naruto laughed as he presented himself to the missing nin.

"Naruto Uzumaki...So thats where you were Haku...so...have you betrayed me? Is kakashi outside somewhere, ready to bust in here and take my head?" Zabuza actually looked hurt by asking those questions, which surprised Naruto a bit.

"Hardly." Haku admitted dryly, she turned to Naruto "Anything?"

"Ohohoho yeah" Naruto pulled a tape recorder from one of the pockets in his shirt, having kept the thing in a scroll before hand seeing as it was useful for keeping notes or gathing information. He clicked the play button on the device and Gatō's distinct voice was heard.

***...And get those fools I paid earlier***

***The mercs sir?*** A voice asked, most likely one of Gatō's minions

***Yeah them, Zabuza is becoming more trouble than he's worth, and I'm getting tired of covering his ass.**

***How are the mercs gonna kill him, he's a ninja.***

***Even ninja get tired fool, I'll just sic him on those Konoha shinobi. Best case scenario they'll kill each other and I don't have to lift a finger, but if worst comes to worst I can just flood those weakened fools with disposable mercenaries.***

***What about that info you we're baiting him with?* **A curious voice asked.

***That report from Mizu? Hehehe, you know what, I think I'll tell him when I spit in the cocky bastards face as the light leaves his eyes.***

***Boss that's cold...***

***I don't pay you to sympathize, now get the fuck to work...*** The tape recorder clicked to a stop, leaving the room in an uncomfortable silence.

Silence broken by the cracking of knuckles as Zabuza's hand clenched in fury. "That no good lying sonufa mother fucking bitch. Haku, change of plans, we're torturing that bastard and killing him NOW!" he turned a glare at Naruto. "As for you, what the hell do you want?"

Naruto smirked "To spend time with my cousin of course." Zabuza's eyes widened a fraction at that statement, he glanced at Haku who nodded.

"So you are related then?" he mused, anger mellowing out at the revelation.

"Yep." Naruto said happily. "The Yuki and Uzumaki are family, she may just be a cousin but all the Uzumaki are gone and she's the only blood family I have left."

"So what's with that recording?" Zabuza pointed to the device in question. "Why are you helping me? Couldn't you have just spirited her away with you?"

"Nah" Naruto waved him off. "I'd never do that to anyone, I'm not a bleeding heart romantic. I may be a gentleman but I don't go that far."

"That's not what I meant..." Zabuza sweatdropped.

An uncomfortable silence filled the room.

"Ok new topic, as for why I'm helping you...I'm killing two birds with one stone, figuratively speaking of course. I knew Gatō was a traitorous bastard, he just seemed like the chronic backstabbing kind of guy. Knowing him he would have done this anyway even if I didn't piss him off by killing all his cronies in town. And judging by the way he had a bunch of fodder ready and waiting I was right on the money."

"That doesn't explain anything." Zabuza growled.

"I'm getting to that, keep your panties out of a knot." Naruto scowled. "Well, since you now know that Gatō is even more of a piece of shit than before, you're most likely not going after Tazuna's head, correct? I mean why kill the bridge builder when you're just gonna torture your client for the info anyway?"

Zabuza nodded once. Yeah after Gatō screwed the pooch on their deal, he reached the top of his shit list.

"Ok, well that guarantees the safety of my client while at the same time gaining a temporary ally in protecting my client, seeing as your client is my clients main threat. The enemy of my enemy and all that bullshit."

Zabuza frowned, something wasn't right, something like this just didn't fit the kids style, or what he knew of it, there was something more to this, he could feel it in his gut. "That doesn't explain why your doing this." He pointed out "Sure, protecting your client is an end and this could very well be the means but that just doesn't fit, you wouldn't have convinced Haku otherwise. Why are you really here?"

Naruto chuckled "As I said before, I'm here to spend time with my cousin, killing Gatō is just a bonus. And personally I don't want one of my family being hunted by hunter nin all her life. So I'm here to offer my protection to you and Haku. Since she's my family she can join my clan as per the laws of Konoha and seeing as she's your adopted daughter in a sense." He waved his hand back and forth in a wishy washy manner "The offer extends to you as well."

"So you're bribing us with a tasty carrot and expecting us to hop to your tune? You're as bad as Gatō." Zabuza grunted half heartedly.

"Maybe so" Naruto chuckled. "But I at least have noble intentions for you both, and I damn sure ain't gonna betray family."

"Family huh?" a far off look crossed Zabuza face for a moment, Naruto noticed a bit of pain on his face, clearly he was remembering something better left unasked. Zabuza shook his head to clear those thoughts. "Kid."

"Yeah?"

Zabuza sighed. "We were going to attack Tazuna while he was working on the bridge, bring your team and Tazuna there in 2 days time, you'll have my answer then...Now get the hell out, I need my beauty sleep."

Naruto nodded as he disappeared back in the darkness, a small chuckle escaping his lips.

_**-ooo-**_

"I'm back!" Naruto called out, walking in Tazuna's house, sweatdropping when he noticed the sliver of wood still lodged in the door from his blow up.

That was when Kakashi appeared out on nowhere nearly scaring the pants off the blonde genin. "We were worried Naruto, where were you?" There was concern in the mans eyes...err eye, as he shuffled over to him on crutches, apparently he wasn't at full strength yet. Looking around Naruto noticed everyone else was there as well.

Naruto was debating whether or not to tell them what he'd been doing all day but the prankster in him just couldn't resist seeing their reactions. "Well." he started, sitting down at the living room table, the others joining him, both Sakura and Sasuke looked exhausted. Sakura's hair was wet while Sasukes was frayed, so he guessed that Kakashi had put them through the ringer on their elements or something to prepare them for Zabuza's return, _'poor them, Zabuza's not the enemy anymore hehehe'_ a barely visible grin touched his face as he continued "After I blew up the other day I went out to the woods to blow off some steam and train."

"That's it? You've been training all this time?" Kakashi sounded disappointed for some reason, what else would he be doing normally?

"Well..." That barely there grin grew wide. " That, and I took out all of Gatō's men in the village, met up with and found out that the hunter nin Haku is my cousin, got Zabuza to betray Gatō and he and Haku are going to meet us on the bridge in two days to see about joining Konoha." His smile grew even wider making the corners of his eyes crinkle.

Now, some things in this world can be bought with money. Other things with prestige and power. This? This was something no amount of money could buy, nor any amount of power or prestige could pay. The sight of Kakashi bug-eyed and twitching, Sakura and Sasuke just deadpan as all hell and Tazuna, Tsunami and Inari all with their jaws on the floor was simply priceless...hehehe life was good.

_**-ooo-**_

**And thats it for that chapter**

**And may I just say, for all those who read chapter 614...**

**Neji...**

**Fuck Man...I got drop kicked in the feels.**

Wood Release: Restoration

C-Rank

Description: Jutsu used to restore destroyed plants and foliage. Good for covering up an escape or attack in the forest, Mainly used to repair damaged training grounds, though the lack of users has made the use of this jutsu rare.


	12. Chapter 12

**EDIT: Ok, This is kinda important and it's been bugging me a whole lot. So much so that It's getting hard to even write without me addressing it.**

**The thing is when this story was on UFF it was currently up to chapter 14, I've written up to chapter 15 so far and I'm just letting the chapters eek out over the course of several days so that each chapter can get the reviews it deserves.**

**Well this sort of is a lead into what I need to say. back on UFF several people reviewed somewhat negatively on what I wrote in this chapter, and I agreed with them that what I wrote seems a bit contrived, the drama in this chapter being... well heavy handed and kind of stupid.**

**And you know what...I agree, In the coming chapters the drama I had set up here rarely shows its face, Sakura who is the recipient of said drama is a bit different over in the next couple chapters but she bounces right back fairly quickly, which Is why I'm writing this right now.**

**A certain PMer who reviewed my story on UFF and sent me a PM just a day or so ago and who shall also remain anonymous, pointed out this to me and asked if I was going to continue using that drama/plot element in this story since it didn't really seem relevant before**

**Technically speaking the drama I wrote in this chapter is relevant but...I can't really create drama in my stories very well, I've tried to make drama and it just doesn't work, sometimes I even forget things that I would start up and they get lost in the chapters like a loose end, that is mainly my fault since I am no Kenichi618, or pokemaster12, or hell even lord of the land of fire. Those guys can take shit and shine that bitch till it's platinum, and they are able to pace their stories in such a way that you feel for the characters. So let me just say this now to you mister PMer**

**I am not them. I suck at drama, and when I feel in the mood to add a little drama it's usually just used to drive the plot a bit. I know its heavy handed and I know it's sometimes badly done, but that's just how I write.**

**Hell I've tried to do a entirely drama filled story before...it failed miserably.**

**For instance, anyone here know of Left 4 Dead? Raise of hands? Ok, most of you? Good, then you all haven't been living under a rock for the last few years.**

**Well imagine this. It's a self insert story, of a really lonely hunter infected. The hunter has retained every bit of it's humanity and feels desperately alone in a city full of infected. He finds the survivors and attempts to save them from a tank, the four survivors get separated when the street they're on collapses. Zoey on one side the other three on the other. Tank comes up out of the sewers pissed off and goes for Zoey. My self insert Hunter saves Zoey and takes her back to his apartment that he uses as a base.**

**Now that you got the general idea, let me tell you my thought process on this. I wanted to make a story that had my Hunter becoming excited to have a person to talk to after so long and how Zoey reacted to a hunter who wasn't quite so bloodthirsty. It was going to be a love story full of drama between them.**

**I failed miserably...**

**First chapter is done, I'm like "This shit is going to be AWESOME!" I start the second chapter... by the end of that chapter and after a little bit of monologue from my Hunter character. Zoey has come up with a way to save the world by having my hunter character RAPE and IMPREGNATE WITCHES! Which, in some strange way makes them docile since the witch population is something like my self insert hunter in that they have some intelligence and humanity left in them and they only need to get laid and impregnated to make them happy again. I was going to point out why this would work by explaining the mind set of an infected. like smokers were chain smokers, Hunters were athletes witches were women with children who died during the infection etc. So knocking them up panders to the witches want to have children again, thereby calming them and allowing the slivers of humanity to come back to them.**

**Now I know I wrote that second chapter in a daze, but when I stepped back to reread it and I was like "WTF IS THIS SHIT BRAIN?!"**

**So yeah, every time I do drama I end up going back to my tried and true format. Batshit insane hilarity. So to you Mr. PMer who says I should start focusing on the drama in my stories to make them better. To you I say.**

**No. Because If I did...it would probably only make things worse...I'll add a bit of drama to the story as I go along, little bits here and there but I don't think I can make a pure drama story without reverting to my CloudCukooLander writing style...And to everyone else I give you this quote from a refrigerator magnet I have. **

**"I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it" - Badass fridge magnet**

**Also sorry for the really bad cliche thug accent in this chapter, I wanted him to be as thuggish as possible and that just sorta came out and again sorry that this chapter is like twice as long as most of my other chapters, shit just kinda wrote itself that way. **

**Oh and And lastly. Please read and review. I know alot of people say this and it must sound like a broken record to most of you but I personally like the feedback ya'll give me, it doesn't have to be much, just a "good job" or "nice story" would be fine, or in the case of those that don't like the story a "This sucks" or "I've read better" is fine. I'd appreciate a more detailed review on why it's 'good' or 'sucks' but that's up to you and I don't mind much anyway, as long as I know there's actually people on the other end reading this thing and enjoying it to some degree I'm cool with it.**

**Disclaimer: I Don't own Naruto. I don't make any money off this story, it's purely a work of enjoyment for myself that I post on the Internet because people apparently like this shit.**

_**-ooo-**_

"speech"

_'Thoughts'_

**"Kyubi speech"**

_**'Kyubi thoughts'**_

_**-ooo-**_

_**Chapter 12: Of Respect and Explosions.**_

"Well that went better than expected..." Naruto chuckled, the black eye where Sakura had brained him throbbing mercilessly.

"Your own damn fault" Sasuke grunted having witnessed the ass kicking firsthand, he hadn't laughed that hard in years, hell Sakura had actually stopped punching Naruto to stare at the laughing Uchiha. Pushing those thoughts away the two genin made their way to the bridge to guard Tazuna, sure Zabuza wasn't much of a threat anymore but you could never count out the random thugs that Gatō could send.

"Yo Old Man." Naruto hailed him.

Tazuna turned to face the two. "Ah Naruto perfect timing, could you give me a hand here?" He pointed to a girder laying next to a pile of the things that had been singled out. "A couple of my workers chickened out and I'm a bit undermanned."

"Sure." He walked over and was about to help him pick up the piece of metal but then a thought hit him when he noticed only a few people around. "Hey Old man, how many of your workers quit?"

Tazuna sighed. "Is it that noticeable?" Naruto nodded "Over half my team quit, 10 of them in all." Tazuna ran a hand through his hair. "I don't know what I'm gonna do, sure I'm not being hunted by an A-class ninja anymore but what good is that gonna be if I cant finish this bridge?"

"Hey hey hey, No mopin old man I got this shit." Naruto brought his hands up in a familiar hands seal and where once was 1 now stood 50 Naruto clones. "So what do you need moved?" The clones all asked in unison.

Now Tazuna was expecting the blonde to help him since from the very moment he met the kid he always felt that helpful energy that he exuded in buckets, it was one of the reasons he wasn't scared of the kid despite the fear he had felt when Naruto had blown up in Inari's face. But this...this was just ridiculous, he had seen the technique before during the fight with Zabuza but using them to do manual labor? It was a ridiculous plan, but despite hearing the boys talk in stereo, just couldn't stop a smile forming on the mans face.

"I got several things you kids can do."

_**-ooo-**_

Sakura followed along behind Tsunami as they made their way to the market to buy groceries for dinner tonight, preparing themselves for the meeting with Zabuza tomorrow.

"It's so sad around here." Sakura sighed, looking around at all of the people around her, most were sleeping in wooden lean-to's or in broken down shacks.

Tsunami who had been quiet for most of the walk looked over her shoulder at the young kunoichi "It's why my father is so driven to finish the bridge, its the only thing that will break Gatō's grasp on our country."

Sakura and Tsunami walked in silence for a little bit longer as the streets started to come closer together, it was slightly intimidating how the buildings funneled like that, The number of homeless people dropped off and several unsavory looking thugs took their place.

"This is the way to the market? Seems a bit dangerous don't you think" Sakura hissed to Tsunami.

"It's not usually this bad." She admitted. "Normally its just one or two of them and there's more people walking around, I wonder why it's changed?" Concern laced her voice as the thugs around them eyed the two women with various looks of lust or greed. "Just keep going, we'll reach the market road in just a second." She whispered. Sakura nodded and the two sped up slightly, making their way to the end of the street, several of the thugs fell into place behind them prompting the two speed up a bit, they were only a dozen yards from the end of the road when a big burly man stepped out from one of the alleyways along the road.

"Well wha do we ave ere?" The Thug slurred, he was clearly intoxicated if the smell of alcohol on his breath was anything to go by. The man grinned showing off many missing teeth as he stalked a bit closer causing both women to look up at the man. He literally towered over the two ladies at about a head or two taller than Tsunami, with the muscles to back up his mass he formed an imposing wall between the thugs behind them and the safety of the main road.

"Now wha 're yah two ladies doin out ere? You coul ge urt." The man flashed a lecherous grin at the two girls who narrowed their eyes at the man, if it was one thing they despised equally it was a lecherous pervert who wouldn't think twice about raping someone.

Sakura's mind was racing as she tried to figure a way out of this mess, she glanced past the main thug and noticed that they weren't but maybe a 10 second run from the main road, a plan formed quickly in the kunoichi's mind. "Tsunami-san, when I tell you to, run for the main road and escape into the crowd, alright?" Tsunami nodded fearfully.

The two women inched closer to the main road, eyeing the thugs warily. Apparently the big thug didn't like that and scowled at them "Where da hell you tink you're goin?" he growled approaching the women.

"NOW" Sakura yelled using chakra in her legs to propel herself forward to land a chakra enhanced punch to the toughs stomach, it wasn't anything close to what Tsunade could pull off, but it got the job done as the man bent over and the waist in pain.

A blur to Sakura's right told her that Tsunami hade made a run for it.

"Don...just stan dere...afta er" The big man yelled at his cronies, gasping for a air a bit. The thugs rushed off after tsunami but Sakura was having none of that. She grabbed five shuriken from her pouch and launched them at the retreating men. With a cry of pain both men hit the ground as the razor sharp metal bit into tender flesh, two in one bandit and three in the other, all of them biting into the back of their legs or ass.

With a sigh Sakura turned back to the big man just in time to catch a meaty fist to the face. A gout of blood flew from her nose as she landed in a heap against a crate.

"You bitch, you'll pay fo dat" The man straightened back up cracking his knuckles angrily.

Sakura spat a glob of blood from her mouth. Her lip was busted and clearly her nose was broken as it bent to the side slightly. However, she fought through the tears to rise back to her feet, quickly rolling to the side to dodge the punch that broke the crate she landed against.

Grabbing a kunai during the roll, she flicked the weapon towards the thug, however unlike the other two the big one seemed to know how to fight, albeit rather poorly as he knocked the weapon out of the air with his fist. "Hehehe none a tha now ya ere." He chuckled darkly approaching the injured girl.

Sakura was still reeling from the punch when the thug landed a punch to her stomach, she could feel her bones creak under the force of that blow, whoever the bastard was he clearly had a decent grasp on brawling, coupled with his massive size the blows he threw had some weight behind them. He struck her in the jaw next, loosening several teeth.

"Yah feel like fighin now girly?" He grinned evilly, picking her up by her throat.

Sakura chocked as the meat hook of a hand cut off her air, one of her eyes was closed shut from a punch and the other was black and blue but she could see the mans face clearly and what she saw scared her more than anything, the man had a hungry look in his eyes, and a wicked smile that could peel paint if he so much as glanced at it. She knew what the man planned and at that moment she felt more scared than she had ever felt in her life, desperately she struggled against his grip but he held her hands away without much effort.

"Go ahead an squeal, ain no un gonna save yah" He breathed huskily in her ear, Sakura's one good eye widened in fear. Knowing something and hearing it firsthand sent a new shiver of horror through her body. the thug slammed her into the ground roughly, he let go of throat but kept her hands pinned to the side with one hand he began fumbling with the button of his pants.

Sakura let out a whimper as he grumbled "Shu it, I'll get to yah in a sec" He lowered his head to get a better look at why the button wasn't coming undone. That would be his undoing.

Reacting on fear and instinct Sakura began gathering chakra to her throat, molding it into water element chakra.

When the thug finally got the button undone he looked back up "Alrigh time fer some fu-" His sentence was cut off as a bullet of condensed water hit him right in the eye. With a shower of blood the man screamed out, letting go of Sakura and rearing back on his haunches. Sakura reacted quickly, adrenaline pumping wildly through her fear filled mind as she quickly got to her feet. With a roar of anger, she lanced out the most powerful kick she could in her condition right to the mans jewels.

Despite the loss of his eye, the man could only double over in agony as he felt his nuts crush under the vicious assault, as he bent forward to grab himself he caught Sakura's chakra enhanced knee right to the nose.

A sharp crack filled the air as the man hit the ground, Sakura panting and shivering over him as the adrenaline slowly left her. She looked at her hands quietly, wondering if she had just killed the man. That thought made her hands shake slightly, almost imperceptibly.

The man twitched suddenly and groaned in pain bringing Sakura back to the present as she flinched at the noise and looked around desperately for something to defend herself, there only a few feet away was the kunai the man had swatted away.

Shaking fingers closed around cold metal as she approached her assaulter staring down with a look of indifference at the helpless man...no not helpless. He was still a threat, both physically and mentally. She looked from the blade to the man several times, her breath coming in short gasps...She closed her eyes.

...

Sakura stumbled out onto the main road, walking as quickly as she could back to Tazuna's house, a bloody kunai in her hand.

_**-ooo-**_

Kakashi sat quietly reading his book with that same look of boredom he wore for everything short of a fight. It wasn't that he was actually bored, no. That was simply a way to throw people off, make people relax or not take him seriously, the Icha Icha just made that task easier. Most people would look at him funny, in a 'how dare you' kind of way, but again, it was unexpected for someone like that to be a trained assassin...and that was exactly how Kakashi preferred it, unexpected.

But that's not important, what was important, at least to the cycloptic Jonin was the shrimp on the roof who was doing his best to imitate Sasuke when he was in one of his 'moods.' Naruto's mental ass beating of Inari's views on life weren't taken too well by the boy. He had spent most of the past few days just staring out at the sea, In fact it was beginning to creep the masked man out a bit and that's saying something.

Kakashi snapped his book closed and sighed, it wouldn't do to let the boy stew over things for too much longer. So, with a determined sigh the man made his way to the roof of the house where the boy sat alone.

"You know...in my personal experience, it's not good to dwell on things like this." Inari ignored the greeting and continued to stare off into space. "Well aren't you a ray a sunshine" The jonin deadpanned, taking a seat next to the boy.

The two sat quietly just watching the sparkles out on the water, watching the seagulls fly lazily around and every so often dive bombing after a fish or some other marine animal.

"Does it ever get better?"

Kakashi raised an eyebrow glancing over at the boy, whose question was barely heard even by Kakashi's sensitive ears. After a moment to see if he would ask anything else Kakashi sighed "Well..." He began, looking up at the clouds above a calm expression on his face. "Yes and no, I guess would be the correct answer to that." Inari tilted his head slightly in the Jonin's direction, eyebrows furrowed questioningly. "Yes in that over time, the pain will subside. It doesn't matter how bad it hurts, the old proverb 'time heals all wounds' is quite accurate." The Jonin sighed again "And no, that despite being healed, there will always remain a scar. How deep that scar depends on how bad the wound but know this Inari and take it from someone who has lost loved ones not just once, but multiple times. Scars, no matter how deep, are there to remind us about our mistakes" He lifted his Headband up to show the young boy the scar over his left eye, then lowered it once the boy got a good look at it. "I got that scar from an enemy ninja during the war, it was a foolish mistake on my part that ended up taking the life of one of my comrades. He was a dear friend to me and even now I dwell on his death."

Inari was about to ask something but Kakashi cut him off "Dwelling on the death of someone and paying your respects to the person who saved your life at the cost of their own is not the same as dwelling on someone's death and letting that death rule you, letting it rule the way you think, act or treat others. Hell I'm, guilty of all three at times but I still try to get past it, I don't allow it to rule me."

Inari lowered his head in thought. He however flinched slightly when Kakashi's hand landed on his head to ruffle his hair a bit.

"Facing your problems is a big part of growing up kid. Adults can be guilty of running away but its a mark of maturity when you man up and deal with things head on. Naruto is a good example, for most of his young life he cried." Inari looked up in shock, Kakashi nodded. "Yes, for the first five years of his life he was quite the crybaby, it wasn't until Naruto found himself lost in the village festival celebrating one of our villages greatest hero's that he started to change. It wasn't a gradual change I can tell you that much."

"W-what happened?" Inari asked.

Kakashi looked at him for a moment. "Well, He had hid himself in a building across the street from a reenactment of the many battles of our fourth Hokage, a man as much myth and legend as flesh and blood. Naruto watched for hours taking in everything that those performers said and did like it was scripture to him. It changed him, he decided then and there to live his life like the Fourth Hokage, to live by the will of fire and his nindo, his ninja way." You could see a small smirk under the mans mask. "And as far as I know he's never cried after that, not one time.

The two sat in a comfortable silence as they watched the ocean.

A few minutes went by when Inari stood up eyes filled with determination. "Fine then." Inari growled "If that blonde idiot can do it so can I."

Kakashi beamed at the boy, he really was quite like Naruto in some ways, all he needed was a push in the right direction.

"Hey is that mom?" Inari asked suddenly turning to point towards the road that led to town. "What's she doing home so early, it's usually two hours before she gets back."

Kakashi didn't answer, he leapt off the roof and landed in a crouch, concern on his face. Sakura wasn't with her and she was running back here. A dozen thoughts ran through his mind at that moment, none of them good.

"Help!" Tsunami screamed, when she was close enough to the Jonin.

"Tsunami-san, what happened?" He was dead serious as the woman came up to him, breathing heavily and trying to catch her breath. She quickly described what happened to the man whose one eye widened. "Get inside and lock the doors I'll be back as soon as I can." Before he took off to find his student, praying that she was alright.

it was a few minutes later when he came across Sakura, limping her way down the road, using a stick she had found as a crutch.

"SAKURA!" Kakashi yelled landing in front of the girl who upon seeing the Jonin, collapsed in his arms.

Kakashi used what little medical chakra he knew to run a scan over her body, 'Two cracked ribs, a broken nose and several contusions on the chest and face...Whoever did this is going to die, painfully." The Jonin was seething in anger, so much so he almost missed the slight whimper, looking down at Sakura he saw that she was crying.

He sat there soothing the girl by stroking her hair gently, waiting for her to calm down. When she had stopped shaking he asked gently. "What happened?" They sat like that for several minutes as Sakura cried, trying her best to tell him what happened.

Kakashi's blood boiled when she said the thug had tried to rape her but that quickly turned cold when he noticed the bloody Kunai gripped tightly in her fist, the knuckles of her hand bone white, holding onto that weapon like a lifeline. "Sakura" he asked quietly, "Did you kill him?" The way the girl froze in his grasp spoke volumes, her spine was arrow straight under his hand. "Don't worry" he soothed. "I'm here, just let it out." He ran his hand along her back as fresh tears sprang to the girls eyes. She buried her face into his chest and soaked the thin material there in seconds. It was almost ten minutes later when Kakashi realized that she had cried herself to sleep, the injuries she had sustained and exhaustion taking its toll. Slowly so as not to aggravate her wounds, he picked the girl up and brought her back to the house where he could patch her up with what little medical knowledge he had.

_**-ooo-**_

"Kakashi-sensei, we're back!" Naruto yelled loudly as the two genin and Tazuna walked in the door.

"Let the whole country know we're here next time, idiot." Sasuke scoffed.

"Shut up duck head."

"Hn..."

"Nice comeback, real original." Sasuke rolled his eyes as they sat down at the living room table. "Why's it so quiet? And where is everyone?" Naruto looked around, seeing that no one was around and the house was surprisingly quiet.

"Eh they're probably just out shopping or something." Tazuna grumbled, taking a sip from his sake bottle.

"That's hardly the case I'm afraid" A voice said from the stairs. the three turned to see Kakashi coming down the stairs.

"What do you mean by that Kakashi?" Naruto asked, raising an eyebrow at how tense the man seemed. The eerie feeling that filled the room set them on edge. "What happened?" He asked quietly.

Kakashi sighed, this wasn't going to go over very well with the blonde. "Sakura." Naruto tensed at his teammates name being spoken in such a broken way, like something awful had befallen her, and truth be told it did. "She was attacked earlier and was nearly raped and killed." Kakashi knew that was a bad thing to say but saying it any other way would have just pissed the blonde off more. He suddenly felt the temperature of the room plummet and watched in slight fear as the Genin's eyes turned icy. Naruto's voice at that moment seemed to match his eyes in their coldness. "Who was it?" It wasn't a question from a student to a teacher. It was a demand and the way the blonde said it sent a unconscious shiver up the jonin's spine.

"I don't know" He said honestly. "Some random thug off the streets is what she told me."

Naruto just nodded once before he stood up and walked to the door.

"Naruto where are you going?" He voiced quickly, turning the blonde from his warpath of destruction.

"What's it look like I'm doing? I have **scum to find and deal with."** he growled in barely controlled rage as a slight bit of Kyuubi's chakra leaked into his voice, he turned once again to walk away.

"Wait Naruto!" Kakashi yelled after him, Naruto stopped but didn't turn around this time.

"What is it Kakashi?" Naruto's voice was calm and even but the air around him was charged with negative emotions, as several cracks of chakra discharged in the air.

"You can't kill the man that attacked Sakura." Naruto spun on his heels to give Kakashi a glare that could melt steel.

**"Why" ** He demanded.

"Because...he's...already dead"

Naruto's eyes widened, the slight red tinge to his eyes disappearing instantly and the air began to warm. "Did you...?" he asked

"No." Kakashi sighed.

A look of understanding crossed the boy's face. "Where is she?"

"Upstairs in her room" He replied quickly, "She hasn't moved since I put her there. She was a bit beat up but I dealt with most of it with the meager medical knowledge I have." A slight nod was the only confirmation the Jonin received

"Come on Sasuke." The Blonde growled.

"Why?" Sasuke looked at Naruto curiously.

"Because, Sakura just made her first kill..." It seemed like the most obvious thing in the world.

"...Sooo?" Was the only response.

"Sooo, what do you think she's feeling right now, huh? I felt like scum after I killed someone and I know for a fact you haven't killed anyone yet but you HAVE experienced something as traumatic, or don't you remember?" Naruto looked back at him with the same expression.

Sasuke paled slightly as suppressed memories of the massacre started creeping their way to the front of his mind. 'F-fine, let's go." he grumbled pushing past the other genin roughly, muttering to himself.

Naruto glanced over is shoulder at Kakashi who nodded slightly to him, taking that as approval he walked upstairs to join his two teammates.

The two boys stood in front of Sakura's door warily. They couldn't hear anything at all which is what was putting them on edge. Naruto was the first one to the door handle, with a twist and a push they were in the room, which they almost immediately regretted. Even to Sasuke's senses you could tell something was wrong. To Naruto's senses it was much, much worse. Sadness, regret, anger, helplessness, were just some of the few emotions he could pick up...but that wasn't all. On top of all that were tears, a small bit of vomit and sweat which assaulted his nose. All in all it looked, felt and smelled like someone had just gone through a shocking and damaging experience, which to be perfectly honest was exactly what happened.

Sakura was curled up in the corner of the room, a trashcan next to her as she stared blankly at the wall beside her, she was so out of it she didn't even realize someone had entered the room.

Naruto and Sasuke shared a glance, Naruto's was an 'I Told you' look while Sasuke's was more along the lines of 'Shut up, I get it already.' The two crept up on the girl making a bit of noise so as not to startle her too much.

Sakura tensed when she felt a hand on her shoulder, she turned slightly to stare right into Naruto's deep cerulean eyes. Without a word Sakura launched herself into Naruto, knocking the air out of him as the pinkette sobbed into his shirt.

Naruto rubbed the girls back gently, letting her cry, letting her vent all her frustrations and fears. Naruto looked over Sakura's shoulders at Sasuke who was standing there impassively, not quite sure what to do at that moment. Naruto solved that problem however with a slight glare and nod towards Sakura.

With a sigh the last Uchiha joined in the hug and tried with his limited empathy to impart some positivity to the girl.

They sat like that for the entire evening and long into the night, Kakashi had brought the three of them food and with a warm meal in their stomach the three turned in for the night. Normally he would have separated them. Boys and girls separate simply for propriety's sake but seeing the three huddled together like that. Naruto with an intense expression on his face even in sleep, Sasuke with a peaceful-for-once expression instead of his broody scowl and Sakura's small smile, which filled the Jonin with hope. Normally a first kill like what happened to Sakura was an immensely traumatic experience but seeing those expressions on each of their faces left little doubt in his mind that his team had just taken a huge step forward in their bond. It wasn't just camaraderie or a friendship of convenience, this was a bond that would prove to be much deeper than that.

...At least he hoped so...

_**-ooo-**_

Naruto, Sasuke and Kakashi walked towards the bridge, bodies slightly tense due to the situation. After all, today was the planned meeting and they'd be lying if they said they weren't at least a little bit on edge.

Sakura had stayed back at the house with Tsunami and Inari, Naruto in a stroke of brilliance (at least by his canon self's standards) Left a small army of clones to guard the house and keep Sakura company, She was still a little shaken up by the attempted rape and her first kill, but after sleeping with the comfort of both her teammates next to her she was at least able to have small conversations with people.

The two Genin and one Jonin arrived at the bridge to find it covered in mist.

"Glad to see you finally showed up, we've been waiting an hour." Zabuza growled as he walked from the mist, arms crossed with a small twitch to his eyebrows, Haku following just slightly behind him.

"Naruto-kun." Haku nodded to the blonde.

"Haku-chan" he nodded back.

Zabuza looked between the two of them. "Well aren't you two a pair."

Kakashi held up his hand to get the other Jonin's attention. "Let's cut to the chase Zabuza, what is your decision? Are you joining Konoha or not?"

Zabuza turned to the man flashed an irritated glare, before that softened into a sigh. "Before I answer that I need to talk with the brat over there." He nudged his head towards the blonde in question.

Kakashi eyed the man warily a little tense at the whole situation but agreed to the mans wishes. "Go ahead Naruto."

"What is it?" He asked the taller man, which was an understatement to be honest, even with Naruto's height upgrade he still stood several heads shorter than the giant of a man.

"I'll just put this bluntly. I don't trust you kid, not you or your team." He raised a hand up to calm Naruto's teammates. "Haku however trusts you more than I find healthy in my line of work, therefore I'm willing to give you the benefit of a doubt, but-" The mist Jonin trailed off almost like he didn't want to be here...and in some ways he didn't. Mingling with people was never really his style, he was more the stabby cutty dead kind of person and that kind of behavior usually didn't make for good conversation.

Naruto stared at the hesitation curiously. "But?" he drawled out.

"But, I have one solution, Haku trusts you, I don't. The reason I don't is because I'm basically putting my life in your hands" Zabuza eyed him dangerously. "Not your teams' hands either. Fuck no. You extended the invitation, you're the one responsible for us."

"So what is this solution then?" Naruto asked.

"Simple. You validate Haku's trust in your capable care." Zabuza pointed to Haku who nodded as well, both understanding the meaning since they had discussed the idea between them for the last two days.

"Meaning...?" Naruto pressed, clearly in the dark about the whole situation.

Zabuza snorted. "You fight, what else?"

Naruto sweatdropped slightly at the sarcastic response. "Oh...ok...and how does that make you trust me?"

"Simple, That mask she wears isn't just for show, she took it off a Kiri hunter that she defeated in one of her first tastes of combat. You beat her and you can beat anything from ANBU down. That's enough power in my book to keep just about any asshole off your back and it's one of the things I can truly respect and trust, Power."

"How...shallow of you..." Naruto chuckled nervously as the man gave him a death glare.

"I said _one_ of the things I respect and trust and doubting my sincerity is _one_ of the things I _hate._" he gave the boy a look that said _'Don't piss me off anymore or I'll stab you.'_

Naruto gulped slightly and nodded "S-so how are we doin this?"

"A duel nothing more, nothing less." Almost as an afterthought her spoke airily "Though this _will _be full contact." At Naruto's questioning look he explained "She may trust you but she trusts me more, she won't be pulling any punches so try and take this seriously...or you'll die."

Naruto nodded slightly still not too happy about how things were going. He was doing all of this so he didn't _have to_ fight his cousin but eh, such was life. He sighed once more but suddenly Naruto grabbed his head for a moment.

"What is it Dobe?" Sasuke asked noticing his teammates strained face.

"Oh Nothing" he replied releasing his head "Just a couple of Gato's thugs at Tazuna's house, don't worry my clones took care of them." Sasuke nodded, as Naruto walked toward Haku

"Naruto, you don't have to do this." Kakashi tried to say but Naruto brushed him off.

"Yeah I do." he sighed, taking his place across from Haku near the center of the uncompleted bridge.

The two teens stared each other down, one calmly acceptant of the situation the other slightly annoyed.

"Naruto-kun, I'm sorry about all this." The young ice mistress began, her tone calm and even despite her apology.

"Don't worry about it" He waved it off. "Lets just do this thing." He turned back to Zabuza for a second. "No kid gloves right? We use everything we got?" At the nod he reached into his pocket and retrieved a single ryu coin. "Well then, let's dance." He flicked the coin into the air and stared directly into Haku's eyes.

The staring contest continued as the shiny piece of metal spun in the air.

Spinning. Not once did they blink

Spinning. Hands inching towards their respective weapons.

Spinning. The two smiled.

*Chink*

Naruto rushed forward drawing a Kunai and throwing it in one fluid motion, in response Haku threw several senbon, knocking the Kunai off target. One of the senbon flew past the metallic exchange nearly skewered Naruto in the forehead but a slight tilt of the head let the senbon fly wide only slightly nicking him on the cheek, which healed almost immediately due to his tenants meddling.

Haku ducked the first punch Naruto launched as he reached her, going into a sweep kick to try and knock the blonde off his feet. Naruto jumped to avoid the attack and lanced a foot forward which was blocked by crossed arms sending the Ice mistress flying back a few feet to land in a crouch, one hand in front of her acting as a balance as she threw more senbon his way.

Naruto hopped back from the barrage as the thin slivers of metal stuck into the concrete where he last had been, demonstrating their sharpness and the reason it was a BAD idea to get hit with one. How the hell it stuck into solid concrete was beyond him but he clearly didn't want to find out, glancing up Naruto's eye's widened as he bent backward ducking the kick aimed for his throat, flipping backwards he put some distance between the two of them.

The two were slightly out of breath from the exchange, but the grin on Naruto's face and the small smile on Haku's betrayed the fact at just how much the both of the were actually enjoying the duel.

"You got some nice moves Haku-chan." He chuckled

"As do you Naruto-kun" She giggled into the hem of her robe, the sensual laugh sending a shiver through the blondes body.

_'Where the hell did that come from?' _ The Genin wondered. Dodging another senbon brought him back to his sense _'Fight now, sexy later.'_ He pulled another kunai and the two met in a clash of metal, one holding said kunai the other blocking with a single senbon, how it was doing that without bending he didn't know but chakra had to be involved.

"Well now this is an interesting place to be in Naruto-kun."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "And just what do you mean by that, we're both evenly matched?"

"Ah but you only have the use of one hand" She raised her hand in a single handsign. "While I only need one hand." She started flipping through one handed seals.

_'Shit'_ Naruto mentally moaned, _'I hate one handed seals...oh well.'_ He threw a little grin at his opponent before going into one handed seals as well which made Haku's eye's widen. Now it was simply a race to see who finished their seals first.

Haku finished slightly ahead of Naruto, as she slammed a foot into a puddle of water that had formed from all the mist around them, the droplets flying through the air formed into deadly looking needles.

"Hidden jutsu: One Thousand Needles of Death!" The ice user leapt back as the slivers of water descended towards their target.

Naruto finished his last seal a moment after Haku. "Water Release: Water Encampment Wall" As he breathed out a torrent of water that surrounded him in a thick shell of liquid.

Needles met wall in a clash of water, the two jutsu of equal power fought for dominance before they simply canceled each other out, the needles dispersing into mist as the wall collapsed into a puddle at the genin's feet.

"Impressive." Haku observed as the water from the two jutsu spread out along the ground.

"Heh, one of the few B-rank jutsu I know of right now, so it better damn well be." Naruto chuckled at that before he went back into his taijutsu stance, Haku did the same. The two clashed again this time Naruto drew his ninja-to to try and get some reach on the woman who seemed to love senbon to an insane degree. _'Something tells me Haku and Tenten are going to get along great together...' _Naruto chuckled to himself

Haku saw how the added foot and a half of blade was affecting her as the blondes blade nicked her arms several times during the exchange. _'I guess I have to use that jutsu after all...I just hope I don't hurt him too much'_ Flying through several handsigns again she slammed her hands down into a puddle of water and shouted. "Ice Release: Shattering Ice Spear."

Naruto's eyes widened as the water around him shot up, almost instantly freezing into jagged spears, and were it not for his training with Anko, particularly the exploding kunai dodging practice, he most likely would have been skewered right then and there. Thankfully he was able to dodge most of them, however one of them ripped a tear in the back of his pants revealing the bushy tail he had stuffed inside.

Watching from the sidelines, Zabuza choked out incredulously "He has a tail?"

"Yes Zabuza, he does" Kakashi replied "Though he is a bit sensitive about it so I wouldn't bring it up unless its something positive, because sometimes he even scares ME with some of the crap he does." Zabuza gave his fellow Jonin a funny look. "I'm not joking. During the Genin test he and his teammates captured and knocked me unconscious, it may have just been a test but most of the initial planning and trapwork was all Naruto, he may be a Genin but he's got the balls of a Jonin I can tell you that much."

Zabuza snorted in amusement "I knew I liked that kid for a reason, he's making it awfully tempting to just join you guys but I don't go back on things like this, it just isn't my style, plus these two are really enjoying themselves wouldn't you say?"

Kakashi nodded a little smile on his lips "Yeah, I've never seen Naruto go all out on someone and while this isn't nearly his limits, Haku-san is definitely pushing him."

Haku meanwhile was unceremoniously fangirling up a storm _'HE HAS A TAIL! So cute!'_ she couldn't keep the blush off her face as she noticed the furry appendage twitch slightly as the two cousins stared each other down.

Naruto on the other hand was a bit pissed off _'Those were my good shorts, dammit...oh well cat's out of the bag I guess.'_ He noticed the reddened cheeks of his opponent and couldn't help the grin that graced his lips. _'Apparently she has the same thing for my tail as Hinata does.'_

**"She has good taste then"** Kyuubi nodded sagely. **"You humans always forget how wonderful a tail can be, so soft and fuzzy."** A little perverse giggle echoed in his mind

_'Why do I get the feeling that YOU have the same thing for tails as...you know what never mind. Don't ask, don't tell.'_

**"Feh, you know you want some of this sweet-"**

_'DONT ASK, DON'T TELL'_ he cut the connection just to make sure he wasn't distracted anymore than he already was, he REALLY didn't want to catch one of those ice spear things in the jewels, that would be...unpleasant.

Despite what she was feeling, Haku knew she had to bring out the big guns if she was to get Zabuza to acknowledge her cousin as a competent caretaker. "I'm sorry Naruto-kun, but this is probably going to hurt...alot." Flashing through several handsigns she brought her hands together in a strange seal that Naruto had never seen before, almost immediately the air around him began to cool "Ice Release: Demonic Ice Mirrors"

A chill went up Naruto's spine as his vision became distorted. He quickly looked around and noticed the same thing all around him, it didn't cover completely but the dome of rectangle-like objects had effectively sealed him inside. looking back to Haku he could see the woman on the other side of the...ice? He could only guess. Haku walked forward and stepped inside the ice mirror seemingly becoming part of it, the clearness of the walls around him turned Opaque allowing him to see the extent of what surrounded him.

It wasn't good.

Haku's image flickered into being around him, reflected between the mirrors. "I hope you are ready for this Naruto-kun, this is my ultimate technique."

A single twitch was the only warning Naruto had, with a blinding speed a dozen senbon lodged their way into the cement mere centimeters from his foot. He raised his eyebrows, _'Damn that was fast, I couldn't even keep track of it...Let's try this then.'_ A quick flurry of handsigns and a sharp inhale and exhale later. "Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!" The abnormally large ball of flames ate at the mirrors in front of him, their wickedly hot tendrils powered by Naruto's massive chakra reserves. When the flames cleared the Ice had melted somewhat, but Naruto's eyes widened when the ice started reforming, it wasn't supposed to do that! He had never gotten his ice to do that before...

"Fire doesn't work on my ice no matter how hot it gets Naruto-kun." she giggled slightly at the blank look on Naruto's face. "Does my technique impress you that much Naruto-kun?"

"The hell it does, I've never been able to repair my ice abilities once they were set in motion like this, truly you are a master of your element Haku-chan." He threw her a little salute which gave the blonde haired genin the satisfaction of seeing her cheeks turn a wonderful shade of rosy red.

"Flattery won't help you Naruto-kun..."

"Perhaps not, but this might." Taking in a quick breath he flew through several seals again and exhaled, this time the flames were much hotter. "Lava Release: Molten Spray!" And unlike last time the molten chunks of lava stuck to the ice, which hissed in protest, melting much quicker.

Haku's eyes widened _'Another Bloodline!? Just how many can he use?'_ She adjusted the chakra flow to her mirrors to boost the strength and regeneration of them but it wasn't without effort, she had to finish this soon or else she'd run out of chakra. _'Sorry Naruto-kun but this is going to hurt for you.'_ A small glint of steel reflected in the mirrors as Haku let loose a barrage of pointy doom at Naruto, he cut the chakra to his technique and leapt back.

"Ahh" He cried out as several senbon still managed to strike him in his left leg. He stared down at the metal spikes lodged in the limb. They weren't hitting anywhere important but the slightly numb feeling he had told a different story. _'Dammit she nicked one of my pressure points. This isn't good, I can barely move my leg'_ Alarms of warning blared in his head as he leapt back, a half dozen senbon stabbing into the ground where he had been.

"Not slowing down are we Naruto-kun?" You could hear the gentle goading in her voice.

A tick mark appeared on Naruto's head _'The hell is she getting cocky for? That does it, I need an out.' _ He flew through several handseals and slapped the ground quickly "Earth release: Earth dome" Twin half circles of concrete rose up from the bridge slamming closed over Naruto's body stopping the barrage of senbon that he could hear slamming into the dome's side.

"That won't stop me Naruto-kun." And true to her words several Senbon broke through the dome to strike the ground next to him, the points of the needles glowing a bright green color.

_'Fuck, wind chakra...'_ Naruto slammed his hands to the rock and pushed as much fire chakra as was acceptable into the dome, superheating it but keeping the rock solid. The next volley of senbon bounced off the sides of the dome, to the chagrin of the thrower. He breathed a sigh of relief, he could hear Haku let out a huff of annoyance as she saw her weapons fail to penetrate.

_'That still doesn't fix my problem of being stuck in here, and just waiting her chakra out is such a bitch way out of the fight, outlasting an opponent is not the ninja way. Gotta strike with deception and...Oww, fuck.'_ He yanked his hand back as he had been unconsciously channeling more fire chakra through his hands into the stone, the rock beginning to get hot, even for him. _'I'm lucky this shit doesn't melt or shatter on me, it would suck if Haku used some ice jutsu on this thing just to blow it u...wait...ohohohohooo now there's an idea.' _Naruto held out one of his hands and channeled a minuscule amount of chakra into a small point in the ground below him. Using a half tiger sign he activated the chakra in the cement floor and a small pop answered, looking down he noticed the pock mark in the cement where his chakra had blown a hole in the ground. _'Haha, success.'_

**"Wait...What. What the hell did you do?" **Kyuubi poked in, noticing the strange flux of power from her container.

_'Oh not much, just coming up with a bitchin plan to defeat Haku.'_

**"How so?" **She questioned, a genuine interest tinting her voice.

_'Well' He started 'I noticed back when the old man let me look at the Uchiha Library that there was this special Kekkei Genkai nature unique to Iwa, called Explosion Release. This Kekkei Genkai allows the user to channel their chakra into an object and or send their chakra out in an 'explosive release'.'_

**"Sooo what? That still doesn't mean anything as long as you're stuck inside this...Oh...You devious little bastard, how the hell did you ever figure that out? You never learned Explosion Release."**

_'Yep that's the plan, and honestly? I just went through several combinations of Nature chakra until it felt right, mixing it just so, then infusing it into the stone. It's not explosion release per se, more like a bastardized version until I can get the mixture of natures right, now watch and learn Kyu. Watch. And. Learn, Muahahahaha.'_ Placing a hand on the dome for a moment he cut all elemental chakra flow from it, canceling the fire chakra that was keeping the wind senbon from coming through and in its place he poured in an obscene amount of explosion release chakra _'Here's hoping I don't blow us all to hell'_ He took his palms off the stone, the very matter humming with power as he slapped the ground, once more raising a dome within the first, however this one was far, far thicker and nearly three times as dense as the first. It took alot out of him but he'd never admit to it, giving one last prayer to Kami and sending chakra to all of his senses to dampen them (a little trick he'd picked up from Anko) before lowering his head between his knees and kissing his ass goodbye, using a single handseal to activate the explosion before the world turned white...

Outside the domes and oblivious to everything was Haku, who stared intently at the rocky formation with interest...That is until the stone began to hum with barely controlled power, which then turned to outright fear, before that fear was replaced by pain, as the world turned white.

**(BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM)** said the giant ass explosion that probably would even impress Deidara.

Speaking of Which

_**-somewhere in the land of earth-**_

"Aaachoo" Deidara wiped his nose with his Akatsuki robes. "Someone must have made a great work of art and I missed it dammit." He held a single finger to his chin in thought. "I wonder if we can share ideas, yeah."

"We don't have time for this, whoever this person is we can find them later." The low, smooth voice of Sasori called from the shadows. "Let's go, we need to find our contact."

"Alright." Deidara nodded following behind the hunched Sasori. "But whoever it is just blasted someone straight to hell I can guarantee that, yeah."

_**-Back with Naruto...ground zero-**_

Smoke, that was all anyone could see after the brilliant flash of light and sound, then when the smoke cleared only a crater was visible, with a smoking and still sizzling Naruto sprawled out with little swirley's in his eyes. He coughed once and a ring of smoke floated lazily from his mouth.

_'Remind me not to do that again, ever.'_ he groaned.

**"..." ** For once the fox was speechless, she looked over the damages to the boy's body and aside from the minor burns and a few minor busted blood vessels from the shockwave he was in relatively good shape. **"You are soooo fucking lucky, I can't even begin to describe it."**

_'Tell me about it, I think I might have packed a BIT too much juice into that' _He looked around, surveying the damages. It wasn't pretty, all around him in a circle was a crater in the bridge about twice as wide as the dome was, a few places the blast had blown through the concrete and left holes in the thing. _'Tazuna is going to kill me.' _ He sighed.

**"Just use an earth jutsu or two on it, it'll be fine."** From inside Naruto Kyuubi expanded her senses trying to find where Haku was, judging by the bits and pieces of broken ice mirror she was probably outside the blast radius, in various degrees of pain. **"Speaking of fine, your fine ass cousin is currently smoldering in a crater about 100 feet away next to that crane, you might want to help her." **

Naruto's eye's widened as he rushed over to machine to find a clearly smoking, clearly NAKED Haku. But that wasn't what made Naruto and Kyuubi's jaw drop. What did surprise them were the large, soft breasts that splayed out from Haku's chest.

_'HAKU'S A D -CUP!?'_ Naruto gasped. _'Where the hell did she hide them?'_

**"She must wrap her breasts or something, it's a common kunoichi practice if I remember correctly. Your mom was a DD and she wrapped her breasts to look more like a C-cup."**

_'Two things. 1. Did not want to know that. 2. ...Actually fuck 2, DID NOT WANT TO KNOW THAT!'_

**"You humans and your views on incest...animals in the wild mate with their family all the time, why should this be any differ-"**

_'LALALALANotListeningLALALALA LA'_ He made a show of mentally plugging his ears despite the fact that her voice was in his head.

**"You do realize that if Haku has the hot's for you and if you two do get together that you'd be fucking your cousin, right? Its distant relation, sure but the fact remains she's still your family."**

_'...'_

**"And that's why you don't argue with a several millennia old, giant demon fox...also your girlfriend is still baking there, you might wasn't to do something about that."**

Naruto blinked then looked back down to Haku, sure she was naked, but he could definitely see the reddened skin along her body and the tiny flecks of rock that had lodged in her skin with little trickles of blood flowing out of the wounds. Quickly thinking he condensed some water from the air and cooled the water down with his Hyōton then slowly rubbed the ice along the inflamed flesh, using what little medical jutsu he knew from teaching Sakura to heal the wounds. It wasn't much but by the time he was through her breathing had returned to normal and her skin was the pale milky color it was before, though there were still several blood spots where rock chips had gone too deeply to heal so he had wrapped them in a piece of his torn shirt. After tending to her wounds he pulled out his storage scroll which luckily had survived, along with most of his wardrobe, intact. He pulled a blanket out and laid Haku on it before wrapping her in it trying to make it as comfortable as possible. He straightened when he heard the sound of footsteps behind him.

"Well kid" Zabuza chuckled, a not so hidden smirk on his face, Kakashi and Sasuke not far behind him. "Seems like you beat Haku in a fairly impressive fight, I do love it when they go out with a bang like that." He nodded once. "I guess a deals a deal. Me an Haku are in your care, but if you go back on this little bargain of yours" His smirk changed to a scowl "Your head is mine." He would have said more but a loud tapping was heard from the beginning of the bridge.

"Well Well Well, it seems I've been betrayed. And here I thought you ninja respected the honor of your clients, I guess I was wrong, eh Zabuza" Gato tapped his cane once more as the ninja on the bridge turned to see the billionaire himself had graced them with his presence, along with the veritable army of goons standing behind him

Zabuza growled "Yeah right, you were planning to double cross me first you swine. That bastard squad of cheap liquor and bad steel behind you is proof enough of that."

Gato let loose low, dark chuckle, "Maybe so but I did put alot of effort into guaranteeing your demise, I can see you're not as tired as I'd hoped you'd be, but I paid good money to hire the very best mercenaries, still not as much as I would have paid you. You missing nin are all so very expensive to maintain after all."

Kakashi scanned the crowd of mercenaries quickly guessing their numbers and skills. "This isn't good Zabuza" he whispered to him, Naruto catching most of what he said. "He wasn't kidding, there's close to 250 of them, and at least 30 of them are Samurai, from their weapons and armor they look to be deserters from the Land of Iron, the Military there is nothing but samurai and those samurai are taught how to handle and manipulate chakra to power their blades." He glanced at the polished and well kept blades the men carried. "They are masters of kenjutsu and taught the tactics of and how to deal with shinobi, with that many of them on Gato's payroll even I would have trouble fighting them."

Gato chuckled again. "I can see you eyeing my little squad of samurai. Yes, these guys were a bit more expensive than your standard merc fare but they make up the lack of destructive quality from most ninja with a nice destructive quantity." Gato stared at each ninja in turn before his gaze finally landed on Haku, and let a creepy, disgusting grin cross his face. He turned his head to address a slightly more well dressed mercenary among the group. "Kill the men and bring me that girl." He said loudly, not really caring who heard him. "After I have a little fun with that bitch, we go to kill Tazuna." His smirk turned predatory. "Who knows, if you goons do a good enough job I may let you have some fun with the bastards daughter and the little pink haired ninja over there.

**"Oh he did not just threaten to rape Haku, Tsunami, and your teammate, you're not gonna just let him say that shit, right Naruto? ...Naruto?"** After a second or two of no reply, Kyuubi looked back at the mental representation of her containers emotions and gasped. The small and normally pure white orb was glowing a deep crimson red with flames licking at the air above it. _**'Oh shit! He's beyond pissed...'**_

Outside his mindscape Naruto's eyes were shadowed by his bangs, Slowly a single thread of chakra rose around him, the deep crimson energy swirling around his body picking up bits of dirt or rock and flicking them off to the side.

Kakashi froze, as a shiver of fear went up his spine. He knew that feeling and it could only mean one thing. Kyubi.

Zabuza also felt the energy, it was oppressive, stifling even. In all his years of being a shinobi he had never felt a chakra like this, it was spreading a killing intent over the entire bridge like a mist, much like his own hidden mist jutsu but far, far more malevolent.

Sasuke stared at Naruto's back, his breath coming out in gasps. The last Uchiha fell to his knees and started sweating heavily. He couldn't breath, it felt like sitting at the bottom of the ocean, the pressure forcing you down, suffocating you...killing you. During all this he didn't even noticing his eyes flicker for a moment from the deep black which was his normal color, to a rich crimson red only interrupted by his pupil and a single tomoe. His final though before he passed out was _'Is...is this Naruto?'_ before all went black.

Kakashi heard Sasuke's gasp and turned back to see him just before he collapsed, catching a single glimpse of red in Saskue's eyes. _ 'Well that was unexpected... Can't say I'm not happy for him but this is serious, Naruto is using the Kyuubi's chakra...is the seal weakening? Is the Kyuubi breaking free?'_

Gato and his thugs on the other hand were all damn near pissing themselves, in Gato's case...well the wet stain running down his leg tipped off anyone who bothered to look. Hell even the stoic Samurai had a grimace on their face, beads of sweat rolling down their forehead and their breath deepening, despite their training against such things, the killing intent focused on them was far beyond anything they had trained for.

Naruto noticed none of this, his gaze was dead set on Gato, more specifically his eyes, not once did either of them blink. Scared, fear filled eyes met red, slitted, bestial eyes. Gato knew that it was dead set on his death, he could see it, feel it, could damn near TASTE it. Naruto let out a throaty growl, a Scowl clear on his face. **"Gato, I was going to be merciful and give you to the villagers to let them decide your fate, but no, not now. No one threatens the people I care about Gato, your ass is MINE!**

Gato pointed one finger at the blonde and stuttered out "Wh-what are you fuckers w-waiting for, it's just one boy. Kill him!" The group of mercenaries let out a roar and charged the lone genin.

They didn't make it half way to him.

Flying through dozens of handseals at speeds even Kakashi was surprised by, the boy finished his chain of seals with hands clasped together. "Water Release: Raging Torrent!" Water from both sides of the bridge sloshed up from the ocean and swirled around Naruto for a moment before meeting the charging band of mercenaries head on, in moments they were up to the thighs in the rising brackish liquid.

Naruto's scowl never left as he flashed through several more handseals, slapping his hands onto the river of water that had formed on the bridge. "Ice Release: Frozen Wave" The water flash froze, the lucky ones were caught in the ice around their waist, the unlucky ones were those that hadn't been hit with the water yet as they caught the rapidly freezing liquid coming towards them, the leading wave forming deadly spears.

Several cries rang out, as blood stained the ice...

Funnily enough Gato had survived the attack, both the initial wave and the freezing of said wave and was backed up against a wall staring at the bloodied corpses of the back line of his men, as the rest of the living ones struggled in waist deep ice.

Then as if to signify their last moments on this earth the sound of Naruto's Ninja-to sliding from it's sheath was heard, Naruto held the blade in front of his face the the edge glowing a eerie green, "Wind Release: Wind Cutter!" He cried and with a single swipe of his sword Naruto released an immense blade of wind.

The results were...messy.

Zabuza watched the attack tear into the helpless fools that dared to attack Naruto. "Hey Kakashi?"

"Yeah Zabuza?"

"Did I ever mention that I liked that Kid?"

"Yes Zabuza, several times already."

"Good, because he's just been upgraded to 'don't fuck with.' status"

"..." Kakashi stared blankly at the man who had this look of utter joy at the way the kid just destroyed his enemies, that and a decent amount of respect for him protecting the honor of his adopted daughter, though the hardheaded man would never admit it. Kakashi just shook his head and looked back at the destruction, just in time to see Naruto picking up the little leech that had caused this country so much trouble.

"W-w-wait, Please don't kill me" Gato begged miserably, holding his hands up in front of him trying to appease to the demon of anger and vengeance that had manifested itself in the young blonde boy holding him several feet off the ground. "If it's money you want I'll give you whatever you want. Land? Women? Power? I'll give you all of it, just please spare me."

The perpetual scowl on Naruto's face deepened "I don't want your dirty money Gato, or your crooked land holdings, or the whores you've broken to satisfy your own twisted needs and as you can see I have all the power I need to kill you." Naruto raised a hand preparing to end the wretched mans life and free the people of Wave but something stopped him, it was Zabuza's hand.

"Remember I need the information this prick has if I'm going to be joining Konoha, that was the whole point of me following this asshole from the beginning."

Naruto nodded and lowered the man.

Gato let out a sigh of relief, glad that his feet were touching the ground, only for that sigh to turn into a gurgle as he quickly changed hands. From Naruto's grasp on the collar of his business suit to Zabuza's iron clad grip on his neck.

"Now about that information Gato..." Zabuza prodded menacingly.

"I-It's at my head-headquarters, M-my office, t-t-top right drawer, far right s-side." Zabuza dropped the short man and rushed off to grab the documents he wanted not even bothering to look back .

Gato sighed again, tensing just to get ready incase he became someone else's ragdoll for that evening. He looked up into the hate filled eyes of Naruto, shivering slightly as they changed from blue to red and back again, from what? He could only guess.

Naruto growled a deep throaty growl. "Well Gato, what do we do with you now?"

"P-please, I'll give all the money I've taken and more back to Wave, j-just please don't hurt me."

Gato ACTUALLY got on his knees and bowed to the blonde who could only look on in disgust at the man, but in a show of restraint he humored him. "IF and I DO mean IF, you tell me where you keep your money, I will promise you that neither I nor my associates will harm you."

"It's in a safe at my headquarters here, its right next to the filing cabinet that Zabuza is most likely looking through right now. Combination is 5871"

Naruto nodded. "Very well Gato, You kept your end of the bargain, I shall keep mine, neither I nor my associates will harm you in any way."

Gato kept his head bowed, a dark, evil grin spread across his face _'That's right, take my bribe you son of a bitch. I don't need the money from this hell hole, I built my company from nothing, this is only a minor setback.'_ He was imagining all the things he'd do to the blonde when he finally got his resources back together from this fuckup when he felt his knees and hands leave the ground. Looking up he saw the most terrifying thing he'd ever seen in his life. The glowing red eyes of the boy who'd promised to spare his life and his grinning, fanged mouth crooked in a wicked smirk.

"B-b-but y-y-you s-said." He started, only to be turned around to face the large gathering of people behind him, the citizens of wave it seemed had developed a backbone while his army was getting torn apart. Gato paled drastically.

"I said I and my associates, that means me, my team, Zabuza and Haku-chan, I didn't say anything about the people of wave."

Gato let out a whimper then a scream as he was tossed towards the angry citizens of Wave, he landed in a heap leaving bits of skin on the concrete of the bridge.

"He's all yours." Naruto waved at the civilians and their shocked faces at having their tyrant delivered to them in a nice, bloody basket. Naruto turned away from them as Gato's screams grew, the people of wave it seemed, neither forgot nor forgave his treatment of them and they would make sure he felt every agonizing second of it.

_**-4 days later-**_

With the help Of Naruto, Kakashi and Zabuza's clones the bridge was built in record time, a few earth jutsu's here a, fire jutsu there and many of the jobs requiring dozens of man hours took minutes.

Now the Konoha team, Haku, Zabuza and the entire population of Wave was standing on the bridge waiting for Tazuna to christen the new bridge in a ceremony due to their hero's, their saviors.

"We can't thank you enough." Tazuna smiled, dressed in a moderate business suit and tie, at least trying to be well dressed for the occasion. He reached out a hand to the young man in front of him, with his help, the country of Wave would prosper and with it the lives of everyone who's hope had been restored by the young blonde.

Naruto grinned and shook the offered hand. "Don't you worry about it old man, just call any time you need me to bust some heads, I'll come runnin."

"Hehehe, I don't think we'll need someone like that for quite some time me boy."

The blonde laughed. "Well, whatever the future holds I guess. if you're ever in the neighborhood, stop by and pay me a visit, I'll do the same."

The kids grin was infectious as most of the people around him along with Tazuna, Tsunami and Inari shared the simple smile.

The people of Wave waved good bye as the five ninja made their way across the bridge, back to the Land of Fire and Konoha.

"Hey Gramps?"

"Yeah Inari?" Tazuna turned to the young boy who was staring after the ninja still thinking on what Naruto, or at least his clone had told him, when he had tried to save his mother from Gato's goons.

"Have you got a name for the bridge yet?" he turned his gaze to the older man questioningly.

"Can't say that I have, why? Do you have a name for it?"

Inari smiled. "How about The Hero's Bridge?"

Tazuna couldn't help but laugh. "That's a wonderful name Inari" He turned to watch the Ninja, who were nothing but specks by now. "A bridge on which a Hero once stood. Yes, that is a great name for the place which Naruto Uzumaki became our hero."

**-ooo-**

**ANNND DONE!**

**Ok guys that's all, next chapter is the return home, since they finished the bridge early this time there's going to be some 'filler' before the start of the chunin exam arc, that's not gonna be long but it will have alot of stuff that will probably affect the future chapters, only time will tell.**

Lava Release: Molten Spray

Rank-C

Description: A parallel to the 'Great fireball technique' only with Lava Release. The flames are much hotter but behaves in mostly the same way as the great fireball.

Water Release: Raging Torrent

Rank-C

Uses ambient water to create a wave of water to send towards your opponent. A similar but weaker version of 'Water Release: Great Waterfall Technique.'


	13. Chapter 13

**Ok, first off this chapter is the one that had the lemon in it, I've since made a AFF account and plan on posting the lemons there under their own story, so if you want the lemons I'll have a link to my AFF account on my profile**

**Now I haven't done any internal reviews in like...feels like forever actually, however I need to just say it now because a couple of you really hit me in the feels with some of your comments.**

**Saligia010: Dude, I gotta say, that really made me feel better, I've had a severe winter cold for like last 3 days and thats probably what made me want to do that giant ass AN in the last chapter in the first place (/)_-) So yeah you're awesome dude, I'm glad you like the story. I try to be as approachable as possible when I'm writing, I like people reading what I write, it just makes me happy that other people enjoy the stuff I write so thanks again. And I'll be sure if I'm ever out of idea's or need a sounding board I'll keep you in mind. So till then, stay golden. **

**IchiNel: I wasn't really hashing my drama skills. I can WRITE drama fine, it's just keeping UP WITH that drama that throws me off. I can write a dramatic piece of literature in one chapter but that usually gets pushed aside as I come up with other off the wall ideas. So I guess you could say I have a problem with the drama domino effect, when something traumatic happens to someone it sticks with them until they can get over it, and that usually takes a long time, that or the author's use really really aggressive ass kicking therapy. For instance I remember Naruto was down in the dumps in one story I read and Anko came along and kicked his ass out of the dumps and had a heroic system reboot from that. The problem with this chapter and the ones after it is like I said before Sakura's problems pop up occasionally but other than that she acts like she normally would, if a bit reserved. which is usually not how you think a victim of a near rape would act, especially when her would be rapist was killed by her and that being her first kill to boot. THAT was what was pointed out to me by Mr. PMer and personally I agree with it, however I didn't really want to change what happened, mainly because 1. I'm too lazy too...I'm sorta like Shikamaru in that regard... and 2. I don't really want to go back and change 3 chapters worth of dialogue and character development because someone doesn't like what I did with the drama so there's that too. **

**So the story will stay the same up until that point, but I think I'm going to have to play with Sakura's reactions to things in the later chapters.**

**Till then I guess.**

**Oh and I'm thinking of doing like I did on UFF on here and doing a Word/phrase/fanfiction/song of the day. What say you all? I come across odd things on the internet, usually its weird words or phrases, interesting fanfics or some awesome music. So does anyone want me to start putting that in the authors notes? It's just a thing I did to add a bit of spice to my authors notes. But if you guys don't want me to do that then it's fine.**

**Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto, Don't make any money off it either.**

**Just one of those days...**

_**-ooo-**_

"speech"

_'Thoughts'_

**"Kyubi speech"**

_**'Kyubi thoughts'**_

_**-ooo-**_

_**Chapter 13: Returning home.**_

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there YET?"

"NO!"

Zabuza turned to Naruto behind him, hand twitching towards his Zanbatou. "Kid...stop that now, before I hurt you."

Naruto only chuckled in response. "Too late" before he fell flat on his face, a single senbon sticking out of his ass.

Zabuza turned to Haku an eyebrow raised questioningly.

Haku nodded. "Pressure points, temporary, Induces a mild dream state."

"BACON RAMEN CRYSTAL FIREPLACE POKER FETISH!"

"Make that hallucinogenic fever dream state..."

Kakashi just shrugged. "Don't worry about him, he'll be fine here in a little while. Someone grab him so he doesn't get left behind...and yes you can drag him if you want." Sasuke perked up at that. "And no, not by his feet." His expressions fell. "You can however grab him by the hair."

You couldn't run fast enough to keep up with the black and blue blur along with the black and yellow blur being dragged quickly behind it...

_**-Konoha Gates**_

"You guys are assholes..." Naruto rubbed the top of his head gently, wincing a couple times as he felt the small patches of his hair that we're torn out regenerate slowly.

"Next time learn to shut up." Sasuke smirked, getting in his own way, a measure of revenge on Naruto for putting him through that hell he called chakra nature training.

Naruto snorted "I wouldn't laugh if I were you, there's still two more levels of chakra nature training I've yet to teach you or Sakura." That shut him up, Sasuke paled slightly and turned away from him walking slightly faster then the rest of them, Naruto could only grin at the payback he'd bring down on the Uchiha's head. However that grin turned into a frown when he noticed Sakura was oblivious to the threat he'd not so subtly hinted at.

It was going to be quite awhile before the girl truly opened back up to anyone, it had taken him some time getting over killing those villagers when he had obtained his powers, he had mostly just drowned it all in training but Sakura didn't have that luxury. He could tell by the far off look in her face that the life she took was still weighing heavy on her mind.

A few minutes passed in silence as they signed in at the gate and walked into Konoha, the two Gate guards Kotetsu and Izumo eying Zabuza warily.

"Don't worry guys" Naruto waved to them, "Zabuza here is going to be joining the village." Both sets of eyebrows rose at this.

"Just how the hell did you manage that?" Izumo asked.

"Yeah doesn't seem right if you ask me." Kotetsu nodded.

"Pfft well I kicked his apprentices ass for one." He pointed over his shoulder at Haku. "And I impressed him enough to convince him to join, that's about it honestly."

"Wait...that little shrimp is his appren-" Kotetsu's words were cut off by a senbon striking the wooden beam of the check-in box next to his head.

"Yeeeeah don't do that, she's about as bad as Anko." The two chunin paled and stared at the young girl who raised an eyebrow, daring them to say anything more.

This was when Zabuza broke into the conversation. "Wait...Anko. THE Anko Mitarashi?" There was clear interest in his voice.

"Yeah." Naruto laughed. "She was my sensei for a little over five years."

Zabuza gawked, then let out a loud laugh. "HAHAHA, no fucking wonder I like you kid." and slammed a meathook of a hand on the blondes back "You think she'd go on a date with me?"

Naruto's face went blank for a moment before he turned a small glare on Zabuza, a bit of Ki filling the air.

Zabuza looked down curiously.

Naruto leaned in close so the others couldn't hear and whispered evenly "I like you Zabuza, I really do but that's not something you say to the husband of the woman you just mentioned." Zabuza's eyes widened even wider than the last time.

"WHAT!?"

"You heard me" Naruto glared.

Zabuza stood there for a moment just staring in AWE at the young genin. A cough broke the staring contest as he looked over at Kakashi.

"Anything wrong?" The silver haired jonin asked.

"Kakashi?" Zabuza asked quietly. Kakashi nodded for him to continue. "You remember when the kid reached 'don't fuck with' status?" Kakashi nodded again, this time to agree with the mist nin. "Well he's just went up another level..."

"..." Kakashi looked from Zabuza to Naruto and back again. "Do I want to know?" Zabuza just shook his head and walked off, walking towards the Hokage building, Haku not far behind him.

"What did you tell him Naruto...?" Kakashi sighed, a slight headache starting to build.

"Oh just that Anko's status as single has been changed for quite some time now." He let out a little perverted grin at the Jonin and had it been any other time he'd have felt...proud for some odd reason but now he could only stare blankly at the youth.

"Heh, well I guess we should go to see the old man now." Naruto glanced at his teammates for a moment noting that Sasuke had walked off awhile ago to go do...whatever the hell he did in his off time, while Sakura just stood there staring off into space. Naruto frowned at that and held up a handseal creating a shadowclone. "On second thought...here Kakashi, take this shadow clone with you...I gotta do something." The clone walked over to Kakashi while the real Naruto approached Sakura.

Kakashi watched Naruto talk with Sakura for a moment, the way the girl brightened a bit during their little chat sent a bit of hope through the Jonin who'd noticed the way the girl was starting off into space. Shaking his head a couple times, he sighed and rushed to catch up to Zabuza, mumbling something along the lines of 'Lucky son of a bitch.' Naruto's clone chuckling along behind him.

Naruto noticed Kakashi and his clone leave, as he turned back to Sakura "So meet me at the Akamichi restaurant tonight at 6, Ok?" He let out a little smile when Sakura brightened a bit, nodded and told him she'd see him then. As she walked off he couldn't help but notice the little bit of spring in her step again. Naruto's smile turned south into a frown though as he went over their conversation. Sakura was in a deep funk, despite how she felt about the date he had sprung on her, hell that alone had tipped him off at how much that kill had affected her. He'd asked her on a date before, sure, it was just a simple lunch date to get to know each of his classmates but Sakura had brushed him off pretty easily. Seeing her like this now just made him feel sick. He had to help her get over this and if he had to go on a date with her or something even further... then he'd suck it up and do it.

"Uzumaki-sama?" A voice asked respectfully.

_'Ugh what now...' _Naruto glanced over his shoulder to see a pair of pale lavender eyes staring at him. "I take it Hiashi-san want's to see me?" At the branch members nod Naruto sighed and followed along behind the man as he made his way towards the Hyuuga compound.

_**-With the Naruto clone-**_

"Ah there you are Kakashi, the mission went well I take it?"

"It went rather well, Hokage-sama" Kakashi nodded, then went through the arduous task of debriefing the Hokage of all the events that transpired in wave, the Naruto clone breaking in and giving his point of view when it was needed.

"Hmm, I see. That is quite a little adventure you and your team went on Kakashi-san. Now that the boring part is over let us get down to business, shall we?" At the agreeing murmurs from the rooms occupants Sarutobi's face hardened a bit. "Zabuza Momochi, Haku Momochi. You wish to join the Leaf Village, is that correct?" The two nodded. Sarutobi sighed "You do realize the shit storm that's going to come from Mizu over this right?"

"Not likely." Zabuza grumbled.

"How so? Why wouldn't Mizu want back one of it's seven swordsmen? If not for the warrior or his weapon then simply to collect the bounty on the man's head" Sarutobi glared at the man making it clear that the coup d'état that he had planned was common knowledge.

"Ughh, that's going to follow me everywhere isn't it?" Zabuza groaned. "The only reason I did that was because of the bastard Mizukage, the bastard started the bloodline civil war and had to be stopped, It's only my shame that follows me now since I couldn't kill the fucker myself."

Haku looked up at her adoptive father in shock. "What do you mean Zabuza-sama?"

Zabuza turned to regard his apprentice and daughter in all but blood. "The Intel from Gato's manifests coming from Mizu painted a pretty picture on the current state of the country. The Mizukage was killed almost a year ago by the Resistance cells in the country, a woman named Mei Terumi runs the place now.

"But Zabuza-sama, she's..." Haku began.

He sighed "Yeah, I know."

Sarutobi took a puff of his pipe "Oh, just what do you know about that woman Zabuza-san?

Zabuza didn't say anything for awhile, you could tell he was mulling things over, debating on whether or not he should say anything, but he just resolved himself since he'd have to say this eventually anyway. "She... " He started slowly. "Was...my teammate...along with Yagura...you know him as the fourth Mizukage." Those who didn't know that fact were surprised by that statement. Zabuza had fought alongside the fourth and now fifth Mizukage? An interesting development for sure.

"So your coup d'état wasn't a grab for power but a liberation of your friends tyranny?" Kakashi mused.

"Yeah..."

"And I thought my time as a shinobi was fucked up."

"..."

"Yes, yes we can all talk about our mental scarring due to our profession later, right now we have business to attend to." Sarutobi pulled out several papers. "Now that I have the full story on this and seeing as there is a minimal chance of Mizu getting involved I think it's safe to call you both Leaf Shinobi." He pulled two headbands from his desk and tossed them to the two mist nin. "I will however have Anbu keep an eye on you two for the next three months, strictly protocol. I'm sure you understand." The two nodded.

"Hey old man?"

"Yes Naruto."

"I'd just like to point out that Zabuza and Haku are under my clans protection, since Zabuza has a Treasure weapon and Haku has a bloodline it would be a safe bet that the council will start sticking their noses in my friends business." Sarutobi readily agreed to that, the council, at least the civilian portion was still as snooty as ever, though they had become less of an annoyance as of late they still could cause trouble now and again.

Naruto's eyes narrowed dangerously. "If the council starts raising hell tell them they're under my protection, that should sway the shinobi council and shut the civilians up."

"That it will. I must say Naruto, I'm starting to feel my age when I see how much you've grown." Sarutobi grinned at the blushing blonde who's face colored just slightly at the praise. "Heh you used to be so childish Naruto, it's times like these I wonder where the hell the years went.

"Wait wait wait, backup, YOU used to be childish." Zabuza stared incredulously at the blonde, breaking out into a bark of laughter at the thought. "THAT I'd have paid to see."

"Yes, he was quite the loudmouthed little brat, but that's just his mother's mean streak showing through honestly." Sarutobi chuckled when Naruto let out a little huff of annoyance, apparently he wasn't quite grown up yet, that brought a little grin to the wizened Kage's face.

"Who was his mother?" Zabuza asked.

Sarutobi glanced over at Naruto for a moment, seemingly getting his permission. Seeing the slight nod the man continued. "Ah she was a fiery woman, even her husband was scared of her and I can tell you now he was whipped beyond all manner and reason." He took he pipe from his mouth, eyes glazed a bit remembering the woman in her prime "Her name, was Kushina Uzumaki."

Zabzua choked and spun so quickly it almost didn't seem like he'd moved. He grabbed the blonde by his black shinobi shirt almost tearing the material and lifted him off the ground so they were eye to eye. "Your mother was the Bloody Red Death!?" His voice was frantic and strained.

Sarutobi rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Ah, I had almost forgotten that was her name outside the village, fitting I guess for someone nicknamed the Red Hot-Blooded Habanero."

Zabuza's eyes bugged as he dropped Naruto. His head snapped towards Kakashi. "Kakashi he-"

"Yeah yeah, I know. Another level..."

_**-With the original Naruto-**_

Now Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze was many things, a coward was not one of them but staring up at the impressive gate of the Hyuuga compound and the dozen armed Hyuuga Branch members lining the walls put him on edge. The Hyuuga compound was never this guarded, he should know. He had pranked the hell out of the place (not counting Hinata) after that one time that Hyuuga ANBU...yeah best not to say anything...they're probably still sore over that incident...actually that may be WHY they're so guarded right now. Naruto sweatdropped heavily wondering for a moment if HE was the cause for so many guards.

After he had passed the gates he still felt the oppressive feel of a dozen sets of eyes boring into his back, glancing out of the corner of his eye he noticed they hadn't turned around to look, _ 'Yeah, they're still pissed at me...Damn Byakugan'_ an unconscious little shiver went up his spine, it wasn't the Byakugan that was bothering him. Hell, he'd be the first to admit that those eyes looked sexy as hell on Hinata but when anyone else looked at him with those eyes, they were...cold, like ice. He chocked it up to their personalities as a whole being the same way and left it at that.

They passed through the Clan gardens and several training grounds before they reached the compound proper. The main house, in all it's imposing glory. A traditional Japanese style mansion would be an appropriate description for the place...but he wasn't there to see the sight's, he was there for business and the man he was meeting held the leash so to speak on the woman who he had come to respect and even to some degree love in the short time they had been together.

The two entered the main building, going room by room until they reached a simple wooden door unlike the sliding paper doors that adorned the outside. Opening it revealed a study with bookshelves lining every wall and a single Japanese style table in the center, the branch member bowed respectfully and left, closing the door behind him.

"Welcome Naruto-san." A voice evenly greeted him.

Naruto turned to see the Hyuuga head sitting at the table which moments before had been empty. "Hello Hiashi-san, it's good to see you again." The niceties were a given in this situation and he sure as hell didn't want to piss off Hinata's dad.

"Come, sit. We have much to discuss." The man waved him over gently but firmly.

As soon as Naruto sat down he felt a wave of...it wasn't killing intent, he could tell that much but looking up he did notice Hiashi sporting a hard gaze, and like all Byakugan users it was only magnified by said bloodline.

"What are your plans for my Daughter?"

Naruto could only blink. _'Straight and to the point I see...well I guess I could answer the same.'_ He looked directly in the Hyuuga's eyes, "I plan on marrying her Hiashi-san."

Hiashi's eyebrows rose into his hairline, a significant show of emotion for the normally emotionless Hyuuga, which spoke volumes how much that statement had surprised him. "Well...I...I didn't think you would be so forward with such information."

"You asked wanting a straight answer and I gave it to you, I try not to beat around the bush when someone want's an answer like that from me."

Hiashi nodded "A good trait to have, and it's served you well now." Hiashi let out a breath that Naruto hadn't realized he'd been holding. "I can honestly say...that I consent to the union.

Naruto nearly fell over at that. "W-what?" he expected anger, perhaps yelling and threats, not calm acceptance and certainly not his blessing.

"You know as well as I do about Hinata's...'problems.'" Naruto let out a little growl at the tone Hiashi took when he said that word which surprised Hiashi quite a bit. _'He's already that protective of her...hmm, interesting.' _Hiashi coughed to cover himself. "What I mean is that many of the elders have, for a long time now viewed Hinata as an...incapable clan heir...and I for one agree with them." A spike of killing intent followed that statement and Hiashi made quick work of covering his ass. "I didn't mean it like that Naruto-san" The killing intent lessened a bit. "Hinata has always been exceedingly...kind. She's always put her friends first among her priorities and while that is a noble practice, it's quite contrary to how we run the Hyuuga clan, where we place clan affairs above all else." The Hyuuga clan head folded his hands together in font of him. "I'm afraid she'd be a poor leader of the Hyuuga clan, but she IS a good person as a whole." Hiashi sighed. "She merely doesn't have the conviction to do the things I would, the hard choices as it were."

Naruto looked pensive, all ill will gone at the moment trying to figure what game Hiashi was playing at. Getting tired of racking his brain he just asked him. "So what's the catch for all this, you've called me here and actually approve of me and Hinata being together. Don't you have anything to say at all. Anything?"

Hiashi was beginning to get a headache from all this. Succumbing to simple human weakness he let his shoulders relax and sent a hand northward to rub the spot between his eyes, trying in vain to quell the ache this was causing him. "Look Naruto" The Hyuuga said, dropping all forms of decorum and speaking plainly for once. "For years now I've tried my best to raise my daughter, I know I've done a piss poor job of it and Hinata has all rights to hate me for the way I've treated her but I've always tried my hardest to push her to be better, to grow." The Hyuuga sighed once more, "If only my wife Hitomi was still alive today...then maybe..."

Naruto chuckled slightly "Hitomi. A name given to those with beautiful eye's. Fitting in a way I guess."

Hiashi smiled. "Yes, even among the Hyuuga, Hitomi's eyes shone brightly, not holding the cold glaze that is present in the others of the clan. A trait my daughter shares with her mother." The Hyuuga leaned back in a more relaxed position. "The Elders heard of your 'dating' and have expressed their want for Hinata to be married to you. Most of them still see you as the demon but they can't deny your bloodlines or that Hinata is a 'lost cause' as they called it. So they're trying to make the most of the situation and marrying her off to you. They aren't forcing you...but all things considered they might as well be."

Naruto frowned, he hated being used and he hated his friends being used even more than that. This little power play was as devious and underhanded as you could be, selling out your own family for political power. It was sickening. "And why are you agreeing with them, you could just as well tell them to fuck off, you're a clan head, they're just advisors and elders, do what the Hokage did and put your foot down. It's not gonna change the fact that Hinata and I are going to get married but it sure as hell will show them you are the leader of this place, not those annoying old fossils."

Hiashi was already shaking his head. "No Naruto, this is one of those things that no one man can change. This clan is run differently than most, the branch family is just the tip of the ice burg and the elders may just be my arms and hands but that doesn't mean they can't choke the head if given enough incentive." He waved a hand around a bit to accent the metaphorical scenario "Just know that I consent to the marriage along with most of the elders. I may not like it but I have to look at it this way, she would have been married off anyway at some point. Might as well have it be the son of a man who I greatly respect and you, who I now respect in your own right." He nodded his head respectfully at the blonde "You would walk into the home of a disgruntled father and tell him you plan to marry his daughter, not even flinching when I layered on a fair dose of Hyuuga brand killing intent on you. You might not know it but that takes guts and balls of a size I don't care to measure." He reached out a hand to shake, Naruto grasped it firmly, the two holding the shake for a time before Hiashi spoke again. "But If you hurt her I will Jyuuken you in a place that even the Kyubi can't heal, you understand."

Naruto paled slightly along with Kyubi in his mindscape, the two nodded, one visibly the other not so much.

"Good."

_**-2 hours later, Akamichi family restaurant-**_

Naruto stood in front of the restaurant, waiting for Sakura, he had gone back to Anko's place to wash and slip into something more comfortable, switching out his armor and ninja gear for a mixture of shinobi and civilian clothing. A plain orange button up t-shirt and dark gray Anbu pant's which his tail was still stuffed into since he really didn't like showing the thing off. His fox ears were pinned under one of his homemade hats. He had found he liked the dapper look with the beret-esqe piece of headwear, this particular one was black with a bit of aesthetic flare, a small red Uzumaki swirl sewn into the front of it.

Of course just because he was dressed casually didn't mean he wasn't armed to the teeth, a pair of small and intricate seals were tattooed to the boys arms, (a triumph in the boy's mind at how his sealing abilities were progressing) Within the seals lied a full assortment of kunai and shuriken, as well as one seal on the back of his neck that contained a standard Anbu ninjato. Standard weaponry, sure but undeniably effective.

A slight tap of footsteps alerted him to his date's arrival. He turned to greet Sakura but froze as his jaw hit the floor. He had said to dress casual and that's how he usually preferred it but Sakura...she...just, damn. In front of him was a goddess in human form, sure she didn't have the figure of someone like Anko or even Hinata for that matter but her outfit more than made up for it.

Slitted blue eyes roved over her for a moment taking in every jaw dropping detail. Her Pink shirt was cut along the midriff to show off surprisingly defined abs and a somewhat curvy waist. The plunging neckline of the shirt was tastefully accented by a small cherry blossom shaped pendant, now normally he'd have objected to how... risqué the V in her shirt would have been but he noticed that in lieu of a bra she had chosen to wrap her chest with bandages, the soft white of the bandages accenting the pale red cloth of the shirt.

His gaze went south for a moment to take in the sight of her shorts. Which, despite the provocative nature of her shirt were rather plain in comparison. Just a casual pair of denim jeans cut off at just above the knees and a pair of tennis shoes finished off the ensemble. After a moment of staring he noticed she had several earrings in each of her ears as well, each stud accented with a pale green gem that matched her eyes wonderfully...not that you could really see the earrings he realized, as she had removed her headband which let her hair fall into a cascade of pink.

In the process of rolling up his jaw he made a vow to do this kind of thing again, if all women dressed up like THIS when going out on a date...he'd DEFINITELY have to do this again... Naruto smiled at Sakura opening the door to the restaurant and gesturing inside.

"Ladies first" He chuckled.

"Well shouldn't you be going in before me then?" She joked, a small smile on her face.

"Oh you wound me fair princess" Naruto mock grabbed his chest in pain before joining her in a chuckle, a tension neither knew had been there disappearing as the two walked into the restaurant.

The first thing to hit was the smell, being run by the Akamichi gave the place a pedigree unmatched anywhere in fire country. The food was rich, yet affordable and the service was courteous and friendly, with waiters and waitresses often spending time talking with the guests helping them feel at home.

The second thing they noticed was that the place was nearly empty, having come between lunch and dinner they just missed break time for the ninja teams and hadn't quite made it to the 'end of a hard day's training' meal. That didn't mean there wasn't anyone there, in fact there were several people that both Naruto and Sakura recognized, one such group was team 11, or Ino, Shikamaru and Choji along with Asuma their sensei

"Naruto, Sakura!" Ino yelled merrily, her hair flipping around in her haste to get up to greet them.

_'Oh Kami, Ino...'_ Naruto groaned mentally. One of the few people, girls of his age group in particular that had caught Naruto's interest when it came to other potential wives. When they had first met that wouldn't have even been considered given her crush on Sasuke but Naruto had found out in short order that after he had landed Sasuke on his ass during their first meeting he had left an impression on quite a few of the girls in his class, Ino being one of his fans. His FANS! He'd didn't even know he HAD fans until a group of a dozen or more girls flocked around him during break one day...that incident had almost turned deadly...good thing he kept a spare change of clothing on him at all times, he really needed to invest in some tougher clothing, he really couldn't afford to have them ripping his clothes off at every given chance...but that was then, this was now, and Ino had that fangirl look in her eyes again...

Although she hadn't tried to declothe him, she HAD flashed quite a few sets of bedroom eyes his way, not to mention her constant come on's she seemed to throw his way. If she wasn't such a fangirl he might have considered it, but as of right now she was still a fangirl and that was a bad mindset to be in. Oh but don't think that made her weak, due to finding out her crush liked self sufficient women she had taken to upping her training to try and get his attention. The results being, her body was as fit if not more so than Sakura's, and he had been personally training Sakura for the past month and a half!

Asuma waved at the two, flagging them towards the table. "Hey why don't you two join us, we just sat down for some barbecue."

Naruto looked over at Sakura for a moment, an unasked question on his face. Sakura just smiled and nodded slightly, taking a seat next to Shikamaru, leaving a space for Naruto to sit next to her, which he gladly took. The group chatted idly until Choji brought up the fact that the two of them were together outside of a mission, and asked if they were dating.

"Well yeah, it is kind of a date." Naruto laughed uncomfortably as he noticed Ino's frown, "But, it's just a friendly date between teammates, kinda like what you guys are doing."

"Oh, that's good" Ino smiled, as their waiter brought them several helpings of meat so that they could cook on the little grill in the center of the table, the waiter also laid a basket of bread down next to Naruto. Ino perked up at that a mischievous smile on her face. "Hey Naruto, could you pass me a roll?"

"Uh...sure Ino. You want butter on it?" At the affirmative nod he grabbed one of the rolls and spread a small bit of butter on it, handing it over to the other blonde. Now normally that would have been it, but Ino saw fit to throw another one of her dirty one liners into the mix...

"Mmm, A good man always knows how to butter a woman's muffin" She giggled, taking a bite out of the bread.

Naruto groaned and smacked his head into the table, hard.

Asuma and Choji choked. One on his cigarette, the other on a piece of meat he had been eating.

"Troublesome..." Shikamaru sighed, beating on the back of his friend to dislodge the offending chunk of food.

Sakura...she just turned away from everyone, a pained look on her face.

Naruto noticed the look on Sakura's face immediately. Scowling, he turned to Ino and glared "Ino, a word please." He stood up and walked towards the front of the restaurant, forcing Ino to follow quickly or get left behind.

Once the two were outside Ino huffed "Just what the hell is your problem Naruto? It was just a joke"

"'My problem' Ino, is that Sakura took offense to it, and right now anything that affects Sakura affects me."

"Oh? So you are dating then?" Ino leveled a glare at the man, a twinge of jealousy touching her voice.

"No Ino, we're not." He sighed again, he'd have to tell her sooner or later, rather now and be done with it than later and have her beat his ass for not telling her what happened to her friend. "Sakura, was very nearly raped and killed on our last mission Ino."

Ino's eyes flew wide. "W-what?" She gasped in disbelief.

"Yes, it's true, she's spent the last week nearly mute, barely saying anything to anyone, I've only just recently gotten her talking. Your little comment may have only sought to get a rise out of me but it also was a little too sexual for Sakura, the last time someone even _mentioned _anything close to sex she actually _flinched_ and wouldn't talk to anyone for the rest of the day."

Right about then Ino was feeling terrible about herself, the fact that she had hurt her best friend, even indirectly, hurt her more than she thought it would. "I'm sorry." She whimpered. "I didn't know."

"Knowing something and doing it are two different things Ino, you knew it would make me and everyone around you uncomfortable and yet you did it anyway. And it's not me you have to be sorry to." He gave her a pointed glance.

Ino sniffled a few times before nodding, the two of them walking back inside. Surprisingly Ino took Naruto's spot at the table burying her head into her friends chest and hugging her tight. It was one of the worst fears of a Kunoichi to be raped on a mission, Sakura had experienced that fear first hand and Ino had just reminded her of it. She whispered 'I'm sorry' insistently into the girls chest wraps, soaking the material with what tears the girl was shedding.

Sakura was uncomfortable with how close the woman was to her, she looked to Naruto across from her and noticed that he wouldn't look her in the eye as he mouthed 'Just let her.' Sakura nodded and wrapped the girl in a hug, a few tears of her own working their way into the Yamanaka's hair.

Needless to say the three other men at the table were confused at this sudden change in Ino but when they noticed the glare that Naruto was leveling their way they thought it best to leave the matter to the girls, who were handling it rather well considering.

After the tearful moment between the girls the meal was eaten in relative silence, afterwords Ino and Sakura said goodbye to everyone, Naruto watched the two leave and saw Sakura glance over her shoulder at him, a small smile spread across her face as she mouthed a thank you. Naruto smiled back and nodded.

"What was that about?" Asuma asked, walking out of the restaurant with Shikamaru and Choji next to him.

"It's not my place to say Asuma-san, the only reason I told Ino was because she was friends with Sakura." He let out a weary sigh "I will say this though, this world is dangerous for a shinobi, Kunoichi even moreso and there are times where close calls require a last resort." Without another word he turned and walked away.

Shikamaru and Asuma grimaced and looked back to the two distant girls, they could guess where he was going with that, A Kunoichi's worst fear and the last resort to take care of it. Yeah they could imagine. The three men said goodnight to each other and walked back to their homes, respecting Sakura's privacy over the matter.

_**-ooo-**_

"What do you mean they're staying here!?" Anko growled, none too pleased by the fact that a certain pair of Mist nin were crashing at HER tower.

Naruto sighed. "It's exactly as I said, until they have enough money to buy themselves a place they're under our care."

Anko rubbed her head in irritation, a headache beginning to form. "And just WHY are we doing this again?"

"Because Haku is my COUSIN Anko!"

Anko raised an eyebrow in surprise, looked from Haku to Naruto and back again "On whose side? And how close a cousin are we talking about?"

"Mothers side and I'm pretty sure its distant, the Uzumaki and Yuki clans are cousin clans to begin with and even if I'm related to Haku its maybe 4th or 5th cousin, possibly more."

"So it would be ok if you two fucked then?" Anko mused, tapping her chin idly with a finger.

Naruto let out a choked sound half way between a gasp and a gag, Haku blushing up a storm next to him and Zabuza laughing his ass off, oh how he enjoyed people like Anko.

"Why the hell are you asking ME that?" Naruto griped, pointing an accusing finger at Anko.

"Well, even I can tell the girl has the hots for you, have you popped her the question yet?"

Naruto's jaw dropped, finger going slack along with his jaw. Haku blushed an even deeper shade of red While Zabuza actually stopped laughing and stared, shocked at the woman's gal.

Anko had to stifle a giggle but continued her line of questioning. "I know you've thought about it and Hinata didn't complain when you asked her to be your wife as well."

Zabuza's eyes widened at the implications, this brat was not only married to the snake mistress Anko but someone ELSE as well. "Wait, wait wait. How the hell are you married to two women." He asked, shocked.

Anko cast a glance his way, Naruto still in too much shock to answer. "He's a CRA participant, since he's the last of two separate clans and a wielder of several powerful bloodline traits, and considering I OWN this tower and the land around it, he's now a man of considerable land holding's through me so he is more than capable of marrying more than one woman to revive his clans."

"..." Zabuza was actually speechless at this, he had never heard of that before and said as such to the snake woman.

"You haven't heard of it because the last time it was used was after the first shinobi world war to shore up the members lost to the major clans of Konoha." Anko rubbed her chin in thought "Hell I think it was the old man Hokage who actually started the damn thing after a good 40% of the village's ninja were killed off. I think the current Heads of the Aburame, Inuzuka and Yamanaka clan were born from that sort of arrangement"

Zabuza turned to Naruto who was just coming out of his daze "Kid, you are one of the luckiest bastards I know of."

"Sooo" Anko began, leaning over slightly to look at the girl eye to eye, a small smirk on her face. "If Naruto did ask you to marry him, would you?"

Haku's face turned a deep shade of crimson as she pondered the question, averting her eyes from the seductive snake Kunoichi. Who, she noticed, didn't wear a bra under her mesh shirt. "I-I...don't know, maybe?"

"Anko, don't try forcing her into something, you know my policy on this, I gave Hinata a choice and she took it. Haku has that same choice but its up to her if she wants too." He turned to address Haku "And that choice will always be open to you, it's not like there's a time limit to this sort of thing. So take some time to get to know me and decide for yourself."

Haku nodded, grateful to the blonde as Anko backed off with a huff.

"You're no fun Naruto, you never let me screw with people anymore." She turned her nose up at the blonde in question who just gave her a resigned sigh.

"Anko, if I didn't stop you from doing half the crap you do, most of the people in Konoha would be physically and mentally scarred by now."

"And for good reason." She growled. "You and I both know most of the people in this village deserve a bit of payback for the way they treated you."

Naruto in a bit of tactful genius changed the subject, pointing to Haku and Zabuza. "So it's alright for them to stay, right?"

Anko frowned, he always did that sort of thing when she tried getting a bit of vengeance back for all the times the people of this village treated him like crap, but he'd have none of it and usually scolded her...actually _scolded_ her for pulling the crap she used to do. "Alright." She sighed, she knew when to accept defeat when he was being stubborn, else they would just argue about it for the rest of the night. "They can stay...But you _owe_ me." She leveled a glare his way.

Naruto shivered unconsciously at the look. "What do you want Anko." He was getting a bad feeling about this.

"I think it's about time we finalized a few things." She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively as Naruto gulped. He _knew_ that look and the way she licked her lips definitely tipped him off on what she was after. "You two!" She snapped, barking an order at Haku and Zabuza who snapped to attention. "You can take any of the rooms on the third or fourth floor. The fifth floor is mine and Naruto's and we're going to be busy for a _few hours_. So don't bother us." She giggled maniacally. "Or you'll regret it..." She left that final threat in the air as she dragged a mumbling Naruto behind her to their bedroom.

_**-ooo-**_

**LEMON MOVED TO AFF**

**LEMON MOVED TO AFF**

The two collapsed onto the sheets. Naruto on his back, Anko laying on his chest, the two gasping for breath and it was several minutes before either were able to say anything.

"Holy shit that was awesome." Naruto broke the silence, laughing in short gasps.

Anko joined in his mirth. "I was gonna say incredible, but that works to."

The two chuckled again enjoying each others warmth, that is until she felt Naruto poking her, well a _part_ of Naruto poking her. She glanced down between their legs to see that his cock was indeed hard again.

"Ehehehe hehh..." Naruto chuckled. "Up for desert?" He joked.

Anko stared for a moment before that registered, letting out a bark of laughter she could only shake her head "Nah, we need to get up early tomorrow, I have to do a few things and I know you have team practice as well, we'll save that invitation for another time." She playfully stroked him a couple times as he pulled the sheets up over them, Anko snuggling into his chest. It wasn't long after that both were sound asleep, sharing in each others warmth for the night.

_**-ooo-**_

_**Like I said at the top the lemon is on my AFF account, whick the link is on my profile here.**_

_**Ciao.**_


	14. Chapter 14

_**A/N EDIT: Ok we're officially caught up to were I was on UFF, from here on out no one know's what's gonna happen ;D**_

_**Also did my previous author notes kill some fan boners? Jesus, I'm looking at my stats page and it looks like my view/visitor stat bar guy got kicked in the nuts, it's like 2000, 2500, 3200 *KICK* 1200, 600. What the hell people?**_

_**I can see scaring off a few people but that's ridiculous lol. To put some minds at ease though I did tinker with the Sakura scenes in this chapter because the did indeed need a little work. So yeah, they're a bit more readable than before.**_

_**I'd also like to point out that Operation: 'Make Sasuke Less of a Dickhead Than in Canon' is a GO**_

_**And as a little advertising towards fellow authors, a wacky place to stick my favorite phrases and a source for good music, I'm going to start recommending fics, adding a few funny words and giving the names of songs out here in the A/N's.**_

_**Fic of the day: Blade Redwind's "Sinch in time." THESE FEELS, I CAN'T CONTAIN THEM! A time travel fix fic that has the fixers travel back to the future to see the results of their actions, but what happens when a time crossed love emotionally scars a certain one eyed Jonin. A KakashiXSakura story, and I will say this now, its a feels fic, I cried at least five times reading it, it is definitely in my top five. its about a 50/50 Story, half of it is in the past and the rest is in the present timeline. I give it a 10/10 so go read it. Or ill find you, And I'll stab you.**_

_**Word/s of the day: Personal Lubricant**_

_**Song/vid of the day:**__**【**__**Touhou**__**】**__**Alice Slash Dot Dash**__**!**__**【東方**__**PV**__**】**____**Youtube that shit, it's awesome.**_

_**Disclaimer, Don't own Naruto, don't make any money off it, just OC's, original Jutsu, etc.**_

_**On to the story**_

_**-ooo-**_

"speech"

_'Thoughts'_

**"Kyubi speech"**

_**'Kyubi thoughts'**_

_**-ooo-**_

_**Chapter 14: buckling down and troublesome women...**_

Anko was having a wonderful day. Why, you may ask? Well, after their little love making session last night...Naruto and Anko awoke in each others arms, feeling...beyond wonderful is the only way they could describe it and now she was standing before the most greasy, foul-mouthed, and most importantly, tight-lipped prisoner she'd had in awhile. Grinning widely she got to work. It only took her 10 minutes to break him...

_**-Meanwhile-**_

Naruto was having a wonderful day...for the now obvious reasons. He walked into his training ground with a shit eating grin on his face, not even caring he was late, or that Kakashi was arriving at the same time.

"You're late...both of you...what the hell Naruto?" Sasuke grunted from his meditative position next to a tree trunk.

"I got lost on the road of life" The two men answered simultaneously, the two turning to stare at each other curiously for a moment.

"Anko?" Kakashi asked.

"Anko." The boy nodded. "Academy broom closet?" he asked back.

"Academy broom closet." The Jonin nodded, the two stared at each other a moment before they bumped fists, nodding respectfully to each other before turning to the rest of their team who were looking at them like they were fucked up in the head.

"What?" They answered simultaneously again, to the chagrin of the rest of their team.

Ok enough screwing around" Kakashi said seriously, the three genin in front of him tensing at his tone of voice. "I know we just got back from Wave but I called you here today to hand these out." He pulled three sheets of paper from his pack and handed it to his team.

"Chunin exams entrance form?" Naruto asked, scanning over the document in his hand.

"Yes, I feel that the three of you are ready to take the exams, you have the teamwork necessary and your abilities are coming along nicely." He held up both his hands, fingers extended "You have 10 days until the exams start, that means a week for training and two days for relaxation before the test." He leveled a calculative eye on each of them "In that week you three are going to buckle down on teamwork, "He turned his attention solely on Naruto. "And you are going to teach them the second stage of their element training while I will supervise."

Naruto frowned. "I know that I was able to teach them the first step in their element training in the first month, but that doesn't mean they can learn the second or third stages of training in the next week." He rubbed his forehead in frustration. "Hell, it normally takes 6 months for someone to even finish the first step much less the others, the only reason I was able to finish the training in all my elements was due to my affinities and massive rape of Kage Bunshin." He leveled a flat stare at his sensei who was casually waiting for him to finish. "And I sure as hell ain't teachin these idiots the kage bunshin, they'd be dead by the end of the day."

Kakashi nodded his agreement, despite the other two huffing in annoyance. "You're right, and I don't expect them to finish by then, but training more in their element gives them more options to work with and in a week you could have them up to par with a couple of small jutsu to get them prepared." Kakashi and Naruto stared at each other for a moment before the blonde sighed.

"Alright lets just get this over with." He formed a handsign and created a hundred clones, the large cloud of smoke filling the clearing.

Kakashi coughed a couple times swatting the offending gas away. "...You know...I don't think I'll ever get used to seeing that." Kakashi deadpanned, pulling out his Icha Icha book and flipping to a certain page.

Naruto ignored the open display of perversity and focused on his teammates. "Alright, first off." He yelled, Sakura and Sasuke jumping to attention to pay close attention to him. After all, when Naruto made that many clones he tended to put people through hell if they were ignoring him.

"Since this is the second stage of Chakra nature training" He continued. "You two are going to have to put some effort into this if were going to get anywhere in a week. Hell the first stage that you two completed in a month normally takes six, this step here takes upwards of 2 years, and the final step is even more than that." He walked between his two protege's and placed a single hand on their shoulders. "I don't expect either of you to complete the second stage of your element by the time the exams roll around." He squeezed Sakura's shoulder encouragingly while at the same time slapping a hand on the Uchiha's back. "I do however think that learning a bit more control over your element along with a new jutsu that I'm going to show you will help make things a tad bit easier."

Kakashi watched on as Naruto's words made their way through to his teammates, Sasuke looked excited...well as much as he could express anyway...about the fact he was going to learn more techniques.

Sakura just had a small smile on her face and the tiniest glint of amusement in her eyes. Whatever the hell the blonde had did yesterday had returned some of the fire to his teammate, something Kakashi was grateful for since he had never had to deal with this situation before. He was either in command of hardened ninja who were cautious enough to not fall to the fate, or was a loner and he sure as hell hadn't been almost raped yet...though that had been the basis of a few of his fantasies... A little perverse giggle filled the air as Naruto went over the process of learning the second step of their chakra nature training.

"Ok, Sakura, since you're our medic nin, this is actually a pretty important thing to learn." Naruto had her full attention. He smiled when he noticed that her eye held a bit more warmth to them than yesterday, clearly her time with Ino after dinner had left a bit of a more positive feeling in her. "Alright watch closely." He pulled out a bit of moisture from the air and held it in his hand. "Alright, most medic nin's use water to draw out poisons, that means that those with water affinities tend to be poison removal experts." Naruto held up his hand and the water started swirling around in his palm.

"The first step was to teach you how to move water around, free flowing and uncontrolled, this is the first step and allows you to move water to attack and defend, but it doesn't allow you to create things out of water like a Water style Suiryudan for example." He held up two fingers. "That requires learning steps one and two and combining them together to make step three.

Naruto walked back to his original spot in front of them, turning he gestured with his left hand to his right which was holding the water. "Step two is simple really." The water in his hand suddenly found itself in a sphere in his hands. "Control, or forming the water into a usable shape, usually a ball since that is the simplest geometrical shape, but." he trailed off as the water, more slowly mind you, took the form of a pyramid, then a cube then further and further until sweat started beading Naruto's brow. Finally after he'd created a wonderful rendition of the Hokage tower in water he dropped the liquid to the ground as he gasped for breath.

Sakura and Sasuke stared at him strangely, they had never seen Naruto that out of breath before, which could only demonstrate how hard this step really was.

Naruto laughed when he noticed the looks he was getting. "Yeah -huff- it's kinda difficult -huff- to control water -huff- it's one of the most difficult base elements to control, it requires near perfect chakra control to really be good at it."

"What do you mean?" Sasuke asked curiously.

"Well." Naruto thought for a moment. "Water is all based on how to move and control a free flowing element. Fire is not often controlled, it's just blown from the mouth in jets, not much control for it. Earth is ridiculously easy to learn since the matter you are using is solid, it's mostly just moving it. Lightning is mostly just control rather than movement since lightning's nature is to move to the nearest object to ground itself. The only thing more difficult that Water is Wind. Wind is the most difficult chakra nature to learn, that's why there's so few wind users even when they have the affinity. Since wind isn't solid or even physical it requires alot of concentration to form anything from it, it also takes alot of effort to control it and keep it in that shape while its moving. However even though its the hardest to control it is also the most flexible of all the elements."

"So what's lightning's second stage?"

Naruto held up both hands apart from each other, in between both a small charge of electricity arced and sustained itself, making it look like a chain of electricity was connecting his hands together. "It's simple Sasuke, the first step was control over lightning at pinpoints and only for an instant, like normal lightning." Releasing the energy Naruto flipped through several handseals and held his hand out allowing a long beam of electricity to extend out of his hand. "Lightning Release: Thunder lance. See this?" He held up the beam of energy that he held in the center like a javelin. "For harder jutsu like this, you require a constant of lightning chakra flowing externally. This exercise allows you to do that, by teaching you how to create a circuit in your body which allows you to store the chakra and the control necessary to release the energy in a controlled way. For lightning jutsu that require the lighting to become a semi-solid weapon this exercise is crucial."

Sakura raised a questioning hand up. "But if that were the case couldn't you just practice something like that lightning lance and learn how to do that anyway, why all the trouble going through this change in chakra nature when it doesn't seem that difficult to just learn a technique that would teach you that regardless just from use?"

Naruto smiled. "Ah now there's a good question. To be perfectly honest, you don't really need change in nature training to get results in that nature, every time you practice a jutsu of that element you become more aligned with the element you are using. So you _could_ say that using ninja techniques period is nature training."

"Then why go through all the trouble of learning how to do this?"

Naruto grinned. "Ah but that's the most important part Sakura. For most people, they have no clue how to use their chakra natures to full effect, even techniques like this one here" He gestured to the thunder lance, which he then threw to pin it to a tree nearby. "Require time and energy to learn _without_ prior knowledge. So in essence, change in chakra nature training is a primer, a first step into learning how to fully control your element along with giving you helpful tips on how to control your jutsu of that element later. " He held up three fingers "The three steps in nature training are about 90% of the rules for the jutsu of each element, so if you learn this you can be assured that you can quickly learn the majority of the techniques of your element or elements."

"So its a shortcut then?" Sasuke mused.

"Actually." Naruto laughed. "It's more like the right way of learning your element, everybody else is just doing it the hard way."

And with that Naruto started their training, with Sakura he had her forming a small sphere of water between her hands, coaching her in focusing the water as perfectly as possible for the desired shape. For Sasuke he forced the broody bastard into creating a link of lightning between his hands with several inches between his palms and fingers.

The results were...negligible. Sakura could barely control the water in her hands, unlike just moving the water, actually trying to give it shape took far more concentration than the previous step. As it stood, the 'ball' she held looked more like an undulating party balloon stretched thin and lanky. Sasuke wasn't much better. His first step had been based entirely on holding the charge internally to his body, only coming out of a single tenketsu in the tips of his fingers, which allowed him to use the lightning release: Tazer. Which in a way was just the culmination and application of the first step of lightning nature training that Naruto had adapted for his own personal use. This. This was on a whole nother level of difficulty, the strain of keeping a several inch long supercharged piece of lightning chakra active externally caused sweat to bead the last Uchiha's brow.

Naruto had been sitting there watching the pairs progress while his clones were doing their own training, with ten or so each going off to mess around with his base elements, ten focusing on learning his kenjutsu kata's which gained a bit more lethality thanks to a couple of lessons Zabuza had given him on the way back from wave, so far the lessons were paying off. Another ten had taken up Taijutsu practice on the other side of the field which Kakashi had taken a fair interest in, which didn't bother the blonde haired genin much since his style was just an amalgam of the academy taijutsu and the Snake Style, good for quick strikes and getting back out more than anything.

A good twenty of them had skulked off to practice his seals which were coming along nicely. He had reached a proficiency in them to create a few seals on his own, thankfully The old man had lent him some books on the subject after he had burned through all the ones he had bought from Tenten's dad. Soon...

As for the last twenty he had been playing with the idea his teammates had given him before his mission to Wave, that of using his tail in combat. So far the results had looked promising. No, he couldn't swing a sword with his tail or throw fireballs around from them, but he could channel chakra through the appendage and with a little work do specific things with it, like touching the ground to send a small earth jutsu like a Earth Release: Earth Dome to raise a small wall around him in case of an emergency. That freed up his hands for something else. Which, in the ninja world, was a life saver.

And no. He couldn't use the tail to add a third element to his kekkei Genkai, thus making a Kekkei Tota, he had thought to emulate the Dust Release technique of the second and third Tsuchikage...the results were...explosive at best, and not the good kind either. The crater his clones had found him in half bleeding to death didn't bode well for any triple element jutsu...at least for now, he'd leave that avenue of thought open for future testing, but for right now he liked being in one piece and still breathing thank you very much.

Unaware of their teammates thoughts Sakura and Sasuke were having different thoughts about both their difficult training and their surprisingly skilled teammate.

Sakura was peeking glances at Naruto every so often when she felt she had a good grasp on the water 'sphere' in her hand, for as soon as she took her concentration off the thing for a moment or two the ball of water would start losing its shape entirely, however thoughts were running through her head that she just couldn't shake. She had spent all of last night talking with Ino about her teammate. No, not Sasuke surprisingly.

No, it had been Naruto that had dominated the girls thoughts. After her close call with that thug, Naruto had spent almost every moment as close as possible to her for the entire trip back from wave and in some strange way her affections for her teammates had inverted, somewhere along the line her crush had shifted to Naruto while her beginning feelings of some sibling love had shifted to Sasuke. It was odd how her feelings had been flipped on their head like that but watching how intently Naruto was watching the both of them, she couldn't help but shiver under that gaze. She hadn't noticed before but his eyes held such...power behind them. His cerulean orbs were as deep as the ocean and filled with as much vibrancy and the headstrong tendencies of a determined tidal wave, flowing forward, not stopping until it had bulldozed everything in its path.

It was humbling to be looked at like that by someone she was beginning to hold feelings for, it wasn't like her crush for Sasuke. No, it was nothing like that with Naruto.

Sasuke had always held her affection, but Naruto...Naruto just exuded this calm that made her feel all tingly inside, even now when they were presented with the stressful news that in a weeks time they would be possibly fighting to the death to gain the title of Chunin...it hadn't fazed the blonde one bit, if anything he looked eager, almost as eager to be training them even, which was odd...

For some strange reason Naruto delighted in helping people become stronger. She had seen him push Sasuke in class, using his abilities to move Sasuke along and actually get the Uchiha to open up to him, which up until that point no one had been able to do. Even now Sasuke looked up to Naruto, he would never admit it but Sakura had spent enough time around the broody boy to know the tells of his posture and mood to know what he was thinking. Right now, he respected Naruto's strength and drive.

And now...Now she was beginning to feel the same, Ino pushing her and rubbing some of her fangirl off on her last night hadn't helped any...although to be perfectly honest Ino was a lot better off than Sakura was, she might not have had a month of Naruto's tor-training...but she did take her training far more seriously since the beginning of the academy, thus becoming stronger than Sakura by a wide margin and in her mind wasn't as much of a fangirl as she had been.

A small glow of determination fired up in her eyes as she focused more intently on the roughly sphere like object in her hand, if Ino had a better chance at Naruto then she just needed to even the playing field, maybe then she could make heads or tails of these feelings for him...just maybe.

Sasuke on the other hand was starting to feel the burn...in the sizzling meat kind of way. Holding large amperages of electricity in and around your body tended to do that to you...

But that wasn't the only thing on the Uchiha's mind. What really dominated his thoughts was how powerful Naruto was. An orphan gifted with an unforeseen bloodline, or in this case, cursed with one. Sasuke wasn't ignorant or self absorbed like many people thought he was, he was just quiet and had a vengeful streak like the worst of them but that came with the whole "Getting your whole family killed and being mind raped by a jutsu that made you relive your parents death for 72 hours" thing.

But that wasn't important, at least right now it wasn't. As he said, he wasn't ignorant, nor was he ignorant of other people around him, especially the blonde mystery he had come to admire...no he wasn't gay, though many of their fangirls had come to that conclusion several times...he really needed to talk with Naruto about that...but again he was rambling. As he stated before he wasn't stupid, or self absorbed, or ignorant. He had walked around town enough with Naruto to notice the glares people gave him when he passed by civilians, he had also heard and seen the whisperings and the rude gestures they had made as well, it was an eye opening experience for the boy who was only a year into the academy at the time.

Here he was, practically worshiped as Kami by the populace, had everything he wanted but still felt empty inside, and here was a child who had the combined weight of the entire civilian populace's hatred pegged squarely on his shoulders and yet he stood up to it, braving their anger and all with a wide, dumb as hell grin on his face. Hell, even in private when he'd seen a bit of that smile slip he still looked happy, regardless with how badly he was treated. Just how did he do it? ...Regardless, Sasuke could say without a doubt that Naruto was one of the first and best friends he'd ever had. He pushed him to better himself, kicked his ass when he was being emo and all around understood what the Uchiha was going through and Naruto had only cemented that when he had made a vow of friendship when the blonde had knocked his arrogant ass on the ground back when they first met...and so far he had kept the damn promise to the bloody letter. It left him feeling...strange...all warm and tingly inside, made him feel not so alone, that maybe he didn't have to live his life or take his revenge by himself...Just maybe

The three Genin felt the weight of their thoughts fill the clearing as a calm silence echoed hollowly around them, even Kakashi had stopped reading his book to fix them with an almost...sad? No, more like solemn gaze.

The rest of the training passed by fairly quickly. By the time anyone realized, it was almost nightfall. Saying their goodbyes for the day the four members of Team 7 left for home. Each having their thoughts weigh heavily on their mind.

_**-The next morning-**_

A long line of thumps echoed across the clearing, each dull thud punctuated by a gleaming metal kunai burying itself several inches deep into a wooden practice dummy at the end of the field.

For Tenten Higurashi this was her relaxation time. The soft, subtle, musical bass of kunai on wood created a wonderful symphony for the girl and her throwing weapons. She had a fascination for all things sharp and pointy, if it could be used as a weapon it was her prerogative and she spent countless hours learning how to throw everything but the kitchen sink, and sometimes she threw even that to get an edge on her enemies. Life was good for the mouse bunned girl. It was a quiet morning, the birds were chirping, the bugs were buzzing, nothing could dampen her mood...that was until one Naruto Uzumaki and Haku Momochi made themselves known.

"-That's the path to training ground 6 and this is training ground...Oh, Tenten... " Naruto blinked a couple times as he walked into the clearing, his mind registering the girl in front of him.

Tenten smirked at the blank look he was giving her. "Take a picture, it'll last longer." She giggled. Naruto facepalmed which only made her giggle harder. "Ok, so what the hell are you doing on this end of town Naruto? And at this hour...It's only what? 6am?"

Naruto shook his head a few times "Uh, I was just showing Haku here around town, she's new and is going to be a ninja for Konoha so I was showing her around the training grounds. Also I'm out early because...well...Kakashi..." he shrugged his shoulders as if that explained everything

It did. Tenten nodded, shaking her head at the one eyed Jonin's bad habits before she turned a curious gaze on the woman next to him. She was older, maybe by a few years, not as tall but she had an ethereal beauty to her, it couldn't help but leave the young weapons mistress feeling a tad bit jealous. "So how you been Naruto, It's been, what? Almost a month since we seen each other." She pouted a little bit "And is Haku your girlfriend? I remember you telling me you had a girlfriend but you never went into details."

"Eheheheh." Naruto suddenly looked a bit nervous at that. "Haku is...well..." He looked questioningly to the girl who only nodded. "Yeah you could say she's my girlfriend.

Tenten's pout grew larger. "Oh well, I just wanted to know since me and Neji haven't been working out." She lowered her head, sounding almost misserable.

Naruto slapped his face again "You're not still on about that are you?" He let out a annoyed sigh.

Tenten looked up sharply. "And what the hell is that supposed to mean? You know as well as I do that If you'd have been single I'd have dated you. Out of everyone in the village my age you're the closest thing to perfect that I'm looking for." She held up her hand going through each finger in rapid succession. "Smart, strong, kind, willingness to help others and damn well handsome to boot." She put her hands on her hips and glared at the blonde. "So you tell me."

Naruto was speechless for a moment before a coughing Haku diverted his attention from the fuming Tenten.

"You didn't tell her did you?" It was more of a statement than a question.

"Tell me what?" Tenten demanded, her voice still holding a sharp edge but now tinged with a small bit of curiosity.

Despite Naruto shaking his head at her to stop, Haku continued. "Dingus here." She pointed to Naruto. "Is a participant of the CRA, he can bloody well have as many women as he pleases. The council knows he has several bloodline traits and they've given him the green light to pursue as many women as he can."

A tense silence filled the confined area and slowly a dark miasma of energy seemed to radiate from Tenten.

"Naruuuto!" She growled. "Just when were you going to tell me this, and WHY in all the hells you can name did you hide it from me in the first place." You could hear a bit of hurt in her voice but her anger overrode it. "I like you a lot you dweeb and I know for a fact you've checked out my ass at least a dozen times so I know you're at least interested. Hell the only reason I dated Neji was because you said you were taken. So why haven't told me yet, HUH!?" The last bit she yelled in his face and, him being whipped a bit by Anko, backed down under her fury.

"Look Tenten I know you like me, I really do know that...it's just..." He tried to mumble a bit more but Tenten had pressed her face into his.

"Just what?" She hissed, sounding quite a bit like the snake mistress at that moment "That you think it won't work?" No response. "That you're not worthy of me or vice versa?" Again nothing. "Or is it because you think I won't like you after you spill your guts about that damn furball in your stomach?" Naruto's eyes widened slightly unaware of the fact she had already been told by her father about the Kyuubi early on. He flinched away from her slightly, averting his eyes.

"That's it isn't it?" it wasn't a question. She grabbed him by his shirt and hefted him off the ground, in that moment showing how damn good a physical instructor Might Gai was. "You think I give a damn about what others think? I could care less about what any civilian or some bumpkin ninja thinks. And you know damn well I'm your friend. We've BEEN friends for damn near 6 years now. Do you honestly think I'd hate you over something as trivial as that? Do you think I'm that shallow?"

Naruto hung there by his lapels just taking the brunt of the girls anger, truly he didn't think she would hate him but even now, even with Anko and Hinata being a guiding positive force in his life he still had trouble trusting people. But that was just it, he DID trust Tenten. So why did he keep that information from her? Was he scared of commitment? Pfft no, he was already married to someone and going to be married to another not much longer from now, he'd already popped his cherry both physically and matrimonially. So what was the problem?

Taking a moment to actually think about it hit him like a ton of bricks

...there wasn't one.

He had just been indecisive and hadn't thought about her feelings at all. With a fair amount of guilt heaped on his shoulders he looked the angered woman dead in the eyes and did the only thing he could do. "Tenten, you're right. I didn't take into account your feelings, I was just caught up in my own problems and didn't want to have to deal with anything else until I had graduated and by then I had completely forgotten to tell you. I'm sorry."

Tenten stared at him for a moment before dropping him like a sack of potatoes turning away from him as she did so. with an curse and a thud the blonde hit the ground.

it was quiet for a moment after that.

Tenten turned back to address him fire in her eyes "Alright, I believe you." She finally said at length. "But next time if it's something as important as that, tell me."

Naruto nodded rubbing his injured rear and getting to his feet.

"And for hiding that little tidbit of info from me, I think you owe me." She let out a little cat like grin at the blonde.

Naruto raised an eyebrow at that. "And just what did you have in mind?"

Tenten was about to say something when Haku leaned in and started whispering in her ear. A minute or so passed by the only sound Naruto could hear, even with his enhanced hearing, muffled as it was under his hat, was the whispering and a few giggles the girls made, the grins on their faces growing wider and wider with each passing second.

"Alright we've decided." Tenten declared. "To make it up to me, you'll be taking _the both of us_ out for a date, then we'll _both_ be discussing this marriage thing with you." The predatory grins they flashed would have made Kisame proud.

Naruto's mouth went slack for a moment as he stared at them, then slowly but surely face met palm. _'Oh great now they're ganging up on me' _He muttered. _'First they're fainting and falling off cliffs now they're guilt tripping me...Fine...' _he grouched walking over to the two women and offering them each an arm.

"Let's get on with it, I still have like 3 hours until Kakashi gets his ass in gear. He began muttering about troublesome women as the two girls dragged him from the training field.

Now he knew how Shikamaru felt.

_**-A Few Hours Later-**_

"Yo Nar-What the hell happened to you!?" Sasuke choked out.

Naruto stumbled into the training grounds looking like he'd gotten into a fight with a tornado in a lipstick factory.

"Good things." The blonde giggled incoherently, a wide smile on his face.

Maybe Shikamaru was wrong after all...

_**-ooo-**_

_**Ok that's another chapter down, and yes Tenten is in the Harem now, Haku was a guaranteed but then I got in one of my moods searching through Naruto images on google _ **_

_**Tenten dominated that search, so I took it as a sign to add her.**_

_**Enjoy.**_

Lightning Release: Thunder lance

C-Rank

Description: Weak ranged lighting attack, can be used to block with but does minimal damage.


	15. Chapter 15

_**Busted this chapter out fairly quick and I enjoyed myself writing this one, can anyone see where I enjoyed it the most?**_

_**...Does anyone know that feel when you cross 100K words on your story and you have now clue how the fuck it got that high?**_

_**Yeah that's my feel right now, complete and utter wut right now **_

_**Also 100K words and we're just now getting into the chunin exams...FML _**_

_**On another note I reached the 150 review mark. Feeling completely fucking amazing right now.**_

_**Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto, I don't make any money off it either.**_

_**-ooo-**_

"speech"

_'Thoughts'_

**"Kyubi speech"**

_**'Kyubi thoughts'**_

Jutsu

_**-ooo-**_

_**Chapter 15: Chunin exams start.**_

Anko's eye twitched ever so slightly as Naruto explained why Haku and Tenten were wrapped around the blondes arms, both of them looking quite pleased with themselves.

"So they're marrying you too then?" Anko deadpanned. A slight tingle went down Naruto's spine because even though she said that as a question he got the distinct feeling it was more of a statement.

"Uhh...yeah" Naruto laughed slightly as the two woman continued to hang off of his body like sexy Christmas ornaments.

Anko stared the blonde down, who was beginning to sweat under the snake woman awful gaze. A gaze which turned mischievous a few seconds later. "Alright, but I get to have a 'talk' with them."

"...okay?" Naruto nearly jumped when the pair grabbing him 'eeped' as the snake woman yanked them off him and dragged the two off to Kami knows where to do...things...to them.

Naruto shivered and said a quick prayer for the two doomed women.

_**-2 days later-**_

"Ok." Naruto coughed into his hand. "Let's see how far you two have gotten with your training."

Sakura held up her hand, a small somewhat squashed sphere sat gently in her palm.

Naruto nodded. "Good, as soon as that's perfectly round, make it twice as big."

Sakura nodded focusing on the opal of water in her hand to try an solidify the shape.

Sasuke held his hands together about an inch and a half apart, a thin but powerful charge of electricity arcing between his palms.

"Excellent. "Naruto clapped his hands together. "Now, make the arc bigger and continue to spread your palms apart."

"Right." Sasuke mumbled, sitting down next to a tree to do exactly that.

"Hey Naruto?" Kakashi spoke up, glancing from his preferred reading material to lay a questioning frown on the genin.

"Yeah Kakashi-sensei?"

"Just how far in are they with their training?

Naruto hummed in thought for a moment, staring at the level of progress his two teammates had achieved and compared it to his. "I'd say they're about a fifth through their second stage training. They were able to finish the first stage of their training before we left for wave." Naruto let out a evil little chuckle as he though back to the tor-training they'd gone through.

"Is there any chance for them to finish before the exams start?"

"Naruto frowned in concentration as he again compared his teammates growth with himself. "No." He spoke at length. "They just have too much on their plate to completely finish the second step. That doesn't mean they wont go in with a fairly good knowledge of the material. I also plan to teach and have them master both an offensive and defensive jutsu before the exams start."

"Well that's good to know, At least they'll have something before they go into the meat grinder."

Naruto's ears perked up. "Is the chunin exams really that bad?"

Kakashi just laughed. "Kid, the chunin exams are on par with ANBU level difficulty, at least comparatively."

Naruto paled slightly at that "Why would the chunin exams be that difficult?"

"Well." Kakashi tapped his chin idly with his book. "Special Jonin are assigned that rank by the Hokage and Jonin are either promoted through a written and practical's exam by a one-on-one battle, or through a field promotion. ANBU however are the villages black ops, the first and last line of defense. So it's only proper for them to have grueling training."

"And the Chunin?"

"Chunin make up for the vast majority of a villages militia. One of our spy's did a count on the five major villages and found an interesting parallel between most of the major villages military size. It's usually 30% active genin with an equal number both retired and in reserve, 40% Chunin, 20% special Jonin and 10% jonin."

"So they make the tests for the Chunin as relatively hard as a suitably comparable ANBU test so that they can weed out the hopeless cases and pass on the ones who can continue to rise in the ranks?"

"Correct."

Naruto shrugged. "Makes sense I guess. I know I wouldn't want an annoying emo and a useless fangirl watching my back..."

_'Oh he's so dead.' _Sakura and Sasuke thought at the same time.

As if reading their minds the blond maverick clapped his hands together loudly, breaking his two teammates concentration. "Alright!" He yelled happily, spinning in place to show his two teammates the absolutely predatory grin on his face. "Hands on practice time." An audible pair of gulps could be heard in the clearing, followed by an equally audible pair of girlish screams, only one of them being a girl...

_**-ooo-**_

Hinata skipped happily towards Ichiraku's. Naruto had just invited her to the ramen stand to tell her something important. Hinata for her part could only hope that her father had agreed to the marriage that they were going to have. ...If he didn't then Hinata was going to have a few words with him... she had finally gotten Naruto to look at her like she was somebody and not just a nobody and she would be damned before Hiashi could fuck that up for her. The fact that she had to share with Anko didn't bother her in the least since she saw the other woman as like a big sister more than anything. Other women however...

With an uncharacteristic and possessive growl for the young Hyuga girl she stomped her way up to the stand to find her future husband.

And find him she did, sitting next to and talking with two other women to either side of him... One she recognized as Tenten but the other she couldn't quite place. She couldn't have known of Haku seeing as she'd been busy with her team for the past few days, so the fact that Haku was now living with Naruto, along with the fact that she along with Tenten were now her future sibling wives had not been explained to her.

So Hinata took things entirely the wrong way.

"Naruto." Hinata spoke quietly, too quiet for most people but with his superior senses the young Kyubi container could hear every syllable.

And he shivered hard, his entire spine going ramrod straight. That was Hinata's voice but laced with a threatening undertone. Hinata wasn't threatening, so if she did have that tone of voice...

She was beyond pissed...

Naruto turned around quickly to greet the angry woman. "H-hey H-Hinata." He stood up, walking robotic ally over to her.

"Who are they?" Hinata pointed a slightly twitching finger Haku and Tenten's way, clearly wanting an explanation as to why the blonde had been sitting between the two women and chatting so... familiarly.

Naruto in a rare moment of tact saw the oncoming shit storm and decided to cut as much damage as possible from the confrontation as possible.

"Before I answer that, I have good news Hinata-chan." He quickly wrapped the girl in a hug, hoping that the good news would blunt her anger at having been engaged with two other women on top of the two he already had. "Your dad said that he agreed and has giving his blessing towards our wedding." He whispered happily into her ear."

Hinata's eyes flew wide at that, almost all of her anger gone. She grabbed hold of the blonde and in a display that would have surprised anyone who had known the timid Hyuuga before, she brought her lips to Naruto's in a hard and passionate kiss, which lasted the better part of a minute, Naruto even felt the not so shy anymore Hyuuga add a bit of tongue to the mix.

Breaking the kiss with a triumphant smile on her face, Hinata dragged the boy to ramen stand and sat him in a chair just to one side of the two girls that Naruto had been sitting next to moments ago.

Naruto finally snapping out of the daze he'd been put under he sent a concerned glace to the two other women in the stand. "Hinata." Naruto spoke slowly. "I have some more news, depending on how you react to it... it could be good or bad."

Hinata's glow seemed to dim a bit as she glanced curiously at the blonde.

"These two women here." He pointed to Haku and Tenten. "You know Tenten. This." He nodded to Haku. "Is Haku Yuki Momochi." Now for the hard part. "And they're both going to be marrying me." Naruto gulped when he saw Hinata's face go blank for a moment. He really needed to divert her anger right NOW. "As you know Tenten is my best friend and had she known I was available, she would have dated me long before I saved you Hinata..." That seemed to douse the beginning fires behind Hinata's eyes as she stared at Tenten with a look that was almost...sad?

"And Haku over there is my cousin on my mothers side, she's been on the run for most of her life and she's finally moved here to Konoha to try and get her life back in order." Naruto was pleased to see the look of sadness in Hinata's eyes change to one of shock and then to what looked like a protective and motherly, if a little possessive look. Hinata quietly stood up and walked over to Haku, who was slowly leaning back in her seat, wary of the possibly volatile woman.

She shouldn't have worried, Hinata grabbed the girls face and in a daring move that stopped all movement in that tiny stand. Naruto, Tenten, even Ayame and her dad who had just come out of the back to serve Hinata openly gaped in shock as Hinata locked lips with the mistress of ice.

A full minute passed by where only the sounds of licking and sucking could be heard before the kiss broke. Seeing that Haku was now blushing heavily and in a daze the young Hyuuga turned to her other target and like Haku before her Tenten fell to Hinata's oral skills.

Naruto on the other hand was having trouble not passing out from a possible nose bleed, his brain telling him that this was something magical while his dick could only concur...one of the rare times the two ever actually agreed.

Hinata broke the kiss with Tenten and sat down next to Naruto, grabbing the blonde's tea and taking a slow sip, her eyes closed. After setting the cup down she fixed Naruto with a blank stare her lip twitching ever so slightly upward into a grin.

"Haku tasted like you and Tenten has a distinctly earthy and woody taste just like you Naruto-kun." She turned back to her cup of tea and sipped it again. "I accept them."

At those words Naruto let go of a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding and turned to Ayame's father Teuchi. "Gimme a ramen old man...actually make that a double."

"Coming right up Naruto." The old man replied, wiping a small trail of blood from his nose as he disappeared back behind the flap of the kitchen.

"Soooo" Ayame broke in, strangely aroused at the sight of two women kissing in her ramen stand, decided a little change in subject matter was in order. "Naruto is marrying all of you?" Ayame asked curiously. She was one of the few people Naruto had trusted with the knowledge that he a CRA participant, mainly it was to let Anko have someone to talk to about it, seeing as her best friend Kurenai and the better part of Konoha's civilian and ninja population was unaware of this fact.

Seeing a way to play a prank on Naruto when she noticed the four genin nod, a devious little question came to the forefront, one that had been bugging her since Anko had told her about it the other day. "Sooo" She began again, this time a mischievous smirk twitched on her lips. "I heard from Anko that you're a demon in bed, is that true?" A loud thump signified Naruto smashing his head into the countertop. "So it's true then?" Ayame looked between the three younger women at the table who could only blush and nod, having heard the story from Anko herself the moment she got any of them alone. Ayame could only grin hungrily at that. "Hey, is there any more room in this relationship of yours?" Another thump joined the first one, this time coming out as a loud harmony and it signified that Naruto had raised his head and again bashed it into the table, The second thump however was of Teuchi passing out in the kitchen, his body twitching violently, foam forming on the edges of his mouth.

Ayame smirked. "Is that a yes?"

_**-ooo-**_

"Naruto...do I even want to know?" Sasuke asked cautiously, passing the blonde in the street. The Kyubi jinchuriki again looking like he'd gotten into a fight with ladies beauty supplies and lost...

"Good things." The blonde mumbled as he walked by Sasuke.

"I don't know wether I should be jealous or not." The last Uchiha said numbly, faintly noticing a few markings on the back of the Blonde's ass which was just barely visible due to his disheveled state.

It said "Property of:" and there was at least 4 names that were somewhat visible to the Uchiha's eyes.

"Yeah, definitely jealous..."

_**-Inside Naruto's Head-**_

**"Hmm, interesting..."** A feral grin crossed the fox turned human woman's face as she felt out her hosts body. **"Should I tell Naruto-kun...?" ** Feeling a little devious the fox woman turned away from her discovery. **"Nah, let him figure it out himself." ** A loud, evil laugh echoed through Naruto's mindscape, sending a slight shiver up the genin's spine, despite his kiss inebriated state.

_'Why do I feel like I'm going to be hip deep in something crazy soon?'_ The blonde wondered to himself and not for the first time...

_**-ooo-**_

Kakashi stared out over the field that his three students had used for their training grounds for the last four days, Naruto sat quietly against a tree, Sasuke not a foot from the boy in nearly the same position with Sakura standing on the other side of Naruto, leaning against the tree casually.

Kakashi had watched the threesome over the past four days grow as a team, Naruto pushing his two teammates relentlessly, showing them both a defensive and offensive technique and then sicking a combined force of a hundred clones on the both of them to practice on.

In two days, the pair had managed to master both techniques enough to be a genuine threat on the battlefield.

Sasuke had learned the Lightning release: Thunder Lance that Naruto had showed them not a week before, and like the tazer the boy had taken to it like a natural. The defensive technique Naruto had taught him made use of the boy's new armaments, ones that Naruto had bought and upgraded personally for the Uchiha. A close inspection revealed the new equipment. A pair of metal gauntlets that had a guard similar to an ANBU's, unlike an ANBU's the metal had a small seal Naruto had concocted on it that Sasuke could store excess chakra into that allowed the last Uchiha to release a debilitating amount of electricity into his guards and anything striking them would be shocked, much like the tazer the boy was so fond of.

As for Sakura, Naruto had to be a bit more subtle with her, seeing as she didn't have as much chakra to burn as the two boy's. It didn't stop her from learning the Water Release: Syrup Capture Field.  It wasn't much of an attacking jutsu but it did play a key part in Sakura's current attack style of bait and trap, which was shown by the girl's new equipment. Like Sasuke the girl had a pair of gauntlet and armguards, with the same pair of seals placed on both. However, unlike Sasuke, her left hand seal held a large amount of water, taken from one of the lakes of Konoha and the right seal stored pure chakra rather than lightning chakra like Sasuke's which helped the girl pull off her defensive jutsu, the Water Release: Hiding In Water Technique that the Demon Brothers had used against their team on the mission to Wave.

Naruto hadn't really needed the extra training since he was getting his training teaching the pair, however he did upgrade his arm guards like his teammates with the same seals on each, except both of his were chakra storage seals, since he could just create most of his jutsu from chakra alone.

As for the three's teamwork...well Naruto had a method to his madness when he chose to teach Sakura and Sasuke the elements they were currently working on.

It all had to do with assisting elements. Elements like wind and fire created an even more powerful blaze. While, elements like water and Lightning made for just as deadly a combination. With Sakura taking tips from Konoha's resident prankster and trapmaster, Naruto had gotten the pinkette up to running speed in utilizing those brains of hers and her Syrup Capture Field to pin targets in an adhesive liquid.

And like most liquids, it conducted electricity...

Naruto and Sasuke on the other hand worked on their taijutsu, both of them going against Kakashi in a 2 on 1 duel to try and get their tag teaming skills up to snuff, while Sakura held back, looking for an opening for her to pin their opponent with a Syrup Capture Field or hit them in the back with her Teppodama

Needless to say Kakashi didn't enjoy himself, the brats were just too damn devious to really take his eye off them for any length of time which made his battles with them rather hectic, the fact that Sasuke was using his Sharingan and Naruto was using his tail of all things to perform jutsu so that Kakashi couldn't copy it himself didn't have ANYTHING to do with his lack of enjoyment...

Though he'd by lying if he said he wasn't proud of his student's growth, but he did feel a bit left out of it seeing as Naruto was the one teaching them the most. When he voiced this concern to his team he was genuinely surprised and delighted that even though he was chronically late and a bit of a perv, they still considered him a valuable source of information and training. Naruto actually got him close to the heart when he said that his skills were more for learning and application of Gen, Nin and Taijutsu, while Naruto's skills were mostly on the theory of Ninjutsu.

It just so happened that theory taught alot more on HOW ninjutsu worked, which was why people used beginners books which mainly focused on theory to learn things rather than advanced books on application of certain techniques, which could be very dangerous if not lethal if they went into it without knowing the dangers.

His kids (And he wasn't ashamed to call them that) had tackled the poor man and told him without any shred of doubt that they were glad to have him as their sensei, even with all his quirks he was still a more sane teacher than Might Guy, whom the three had the displeasure to meet when he had shown up to challenge the scarecrow on more then one occasion.

Smiling ruefully at the three who were just now picking up his presence. He hopped down and joined his team, waving to the trio in a rather carefree and relaxed manner.

"So...you three ready?" At each respective nod the man could only fill with pride at how confident each of his students were. "You kid's will do great today, remember your training, and Sasuke?"

The Uchiha gently nodded his head. "Yeah I got it, keep a cool head and don't let Naruto run headlong into danger, don't worry I got his back."

Kakashi turned to the pinkette of the group. "Sakura?"

"Yeah, I'll keep an eye on the two idiots."

Kakashi's eye again went into its patented U shaped smile that told everyone around him that he was genuinely happy about something "Good you three, now get to the Academy, The testing area is on the 3rd floor." He tossed them a little salute before he disappeared in a shunshin.

"Well." Naruto shrugged. "Let's go then."

_**-10 minutes later-**_

"A kid's getting picked on by a Suna shinobi, what do we do?" Sasuke asked quietly, as the three genin watched a man in a black cat robe and face paint pick on a little kid that had bumped into him

"I say we save the kid" Naruto interjected. "He may have bumped into the guy but that guy is being a massive dick about it."

"We could just ignore it and go to the academy." Sakura supplied.

Sasuke shook his head "Nah, Naruto's got it right. Catman is being a bit of a dick about this."

Sakura sighed, she hated being outvoted by the two hot heads.

"Alright, what're we gonna use then?" Naruto asked quietly, watching as the cat man threatened the kid with a punch to the face. "Hurry, looks like cat boy isn't taking it too well."

"Arrow X formation?" The Uchiha asked.

The blonde nodded. "That'll do." Before he disappeared in a shunshin, Sasuke nodding and disappeared not a moment later.

Sakura shook her head, muttering "Boy's..." before sighing and following along at a more reasonable pace behind them.

Below, the cat man had reared back his fist to strike. "Prepare for you lumps kid." He chuckled darkly before he froze, feeling the cold hard steel of a blade at the back of his neck, not a moment later a kunai appeared on his throat, the two blades crossing in a scissoring x formation. Finally a last kunai appeared on the other side of his neck, point first and with a hand on the fist he had readied to punch.

"You know." A calm, gravelly voice spoke up behind him, holding what appeared to be a ninjato to the back of his neck. "It's not polite to hit people just for accidentally running into you."

Kankuro!" The pigtailed blonde woman behind the cat man (Now named Kankuro) gasped, preparing to grab a large war fan from her back.

"Don't move, girly." Sasuke growled, moving his kunai just slightly to place it even tighter against Kankuro's neck.

"Temari." Kankuro gasped. "Do what he says."

"Drop the kid." Sakura growled from her position opposite her two teammates.

Like the crack of a whip the sand genin's hand snapped open dropping the kid to the ground unceremoniously.

The kid got to his feet and scowled at the sand ninja. "You'll regret doing that to me, I'll tell my grandpa on you!"

"Kid, get lost." Naruto growled at him. "Your grandpa doesn't need to get involved."

"My grandpa's the third Hokage!" He yelled.

Naruto for his part didn't flinch, however his two teammates had a surprised look on their face, while the two sand nin looked pale. After all, they had nearly caused an international incident with one of the Hokage's family. That would have been bad. Very, very bad.

"Kid." Naruto growled again. "I don't care if he's your grandmother, get the hell out of here." Naruto focused a small bit of killing intent on the brat, which broke the kid out of his anger, his spine snapping taut as fear filled his eyes. "By the way brat. Learn to live off your own name instead of using your old man's for everything."

If the boy heard what Naruto said, he didn't show it, but that didn't stop Naruto teaching the brat a lesson. "Oh and learn to stand up for yourself or no one will see you for you, now scram" Naruto lessened his killing intent and the boy, in a fit of terror took off running. He would be spending the next few days thinking on Naruto's words, however and inadvertently change the young boy's beliefs for the better...not like the ankle biter really mattered much in this story anyway...

"Now." Naruto turned back to Kankuro. "What to do with you?"

Kankuro, for his part didn't even flinch at the cold tone the boy held for him, he did however flinch as a wave of killing intent washed over him from one of the nearby tree's.

"Kankuro." A boy, not much older than any of the three leaf genin droned, hanging upside down in the tree not a dozen feet away. "You're a disgrace to Suna."

"Wait, don't do anything rash." The cat man held out his hands placating to the red haired youth who had just hopped down to glare at him.

"Kankuro...shut up, or I'll kill you." The calm way the red head threatened to kill the older boy sent shivers down the spines of team 7.

"I'm sorry for my brother's stupidity." he nodded to the trio of leaf nin, staring intently at Naruto in particular.

"Not a problem." Naruto replied slowly, getting a really bad feeling about the redhead. He had felt that feeling before but couldn't quite place it.

**"That's because the boy is a jinchuriki." **Kyu spoke up in Naruto's head.

Outwardly Naruto kept his cool, only a slight twitch betraying him. Internally however...

_'You mean that bastard is just like me!?" _ He nearly screamed at her.

**"Not quite."** She waved her hands gently to calm the boy. **"From the feel of his power, he's probably the container of the one tailed Tanuki, Ichibi."**

_'...So he's the one tails container eh...?' _Naruto grimaced a bit_. "It's not much better but at least now I know he's the runt of the litter, still...I can feel the bastards bloodlust from here.'_

**"True, and I wouldn't pick a fight with him just yet. Though I would tell him you know what he is and you'll see him in the exams, that'll draw the bloodthirsty little bastard off your teammates and anyone else in the exams."**

_'Yeah, cuz we're the only ones who can really fight on his level.'_ With an approving nod from Kyubi the nine tailed jinchuriki leveled a small glare Garra's way. "If you three are here for the exams, we'll be seeing you there."

The red head nodded and turned to leave.

"Hey, guy with the gourd." Naruto called out to him as the red haired boy turned to regard him with a blank curiosity.

"Tell the racoon I said hi and let him know Kyu send's her regards." Naruto turned on his heels, feeling a sharp bloodlust behind his back as his teammates followed behind him.

Behind them Garra's eyes went wide for a moment as the Shukaku inside him started screaming obscenities at the Kyubi jinchuriki for calling him such a disrespectful name, then the Ichibi jinchuriki's face took on an almost insane and predatory grin as his bloodlust shot through the roof, his two siblings backing away from him slowly so as not to tempt his ire. "Wait!" the redhead yelled.

Naruto looked over his shoulder at the boy, tensing slightly incase the red head tried anything.

"What is your name."

"It's Naruto." The blonde jinchuriki replied. "Naruto Uzumaki."

"Well then Uzumaki." Garra growled evilly. "Know that Garra of the desert looks forward to spilling your blood later in the exams." Without saying another word the three sand ninja turned and left, going their own route to the academy.

"What was that about Naruto?" Sakura asked quietly, shivering slightly from the faint traces of bloodlust still apparent in the air.

"Just making sure the bloody bastard doesn't go for either of you in this test."

"What do you mean Naruto?" Sasuke prodded, staring at the backs of the sand ninja before they disappeared around a corner. "Just what the hell is he?"

"He's a jinchuriki." Naruto ground out. "He has the one tailed ichibi sealed within his body."

Sasuke and Sakura's eyes flew wide at that.

"He's WHAT?" Sasuke ground out, his body almost shaking in unrestrained fear as he remembered the sheer bloodlust the boy exuded. A shiver went up the Uchiha's spine, he had come very very close to picking a fight with the redhead himself if Naruto hadn't done it for him. Another shiver went up his spine as he looked back to where the sand team disappeared.

"He's a human who has a demon sealed within him Sasuke" Naruto spoke quietly, still walking along, nearly leaving his team behind. "And I just provoked him so that he'd go after me instead of either of you or the others in this test."

"Why in hell did you do that!?" Sakura screeched, momentarily going into her fangirl mode to bitch Naruto out.

"I did it." He rubbed his sensitive ears underneath his hat gently. "Because I'm the only one who can fight at the bastards level."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Sasuke growled. He didn't like being considered weak, but Naruto almost did exactly that by claiming he was the only one who could take ...him... A thought seemed to occur to the boy for a moment, something about what Naruto said...

"Naruto..." The Uchiha asked quietly. "Why are you the only one who can face him? And who's Kyu?"

Naruto only tensed slightly, his shoulders coming up defensively. "I'll tell you both later Sasuke, let's just get to the academy quickly."

Sasuke for his part accepted that, knowing his theory was almost positively correct now. Naruto's birthday, his age, The name kyu... that and the fox bloodline he had pointed to something more than just a mutation from being in close contact with the Kyubi's chakra. That, and Sasuke never bought that half assed explanation back when Naruto first showed up with his fox ears and tail. But, like the somewhat patient ninja that he was, he locked that bit of information in the back of his head for later, no use in creating a split in group dynamics when they could talk about this after word.

The rest of the walk to the academy was uneventful and silent, Naruto standing just slightly farther ahead then the rest of them, immersed in his own thoughts at the moment. However he was shocked to find Sasuke had sped up right before they reached the door to lay a hand on the blonde's shoulder and spoke calmly.

"Whatever it is that you're hiding Naruto, we're still a team, and I won't hold any grudges against you." his grip tightened just slightly. "So get out of that damn funk, we have an exam to win."

Naruto stared at his teammate for a moment, his calculating gaze staring into the Uchiha's dark eyes. After a moment's thought the blonde nodded and placed a hand on Sasuke's shoulder as well.

The two broke apart a moment later when Sakura started tapping her foot in irritation.

"We're going to be late if we keep stopping like this." She told them pointedly, and while she hated to be left out of the loop, seeing as that's what Naruto and Sasuke seemed to be doing, she could still see that teamwork was more important that stopping to talk about it right now.

"Right." The two nodded and opened the door to the academy...to immediately be assaulted by the noise of dozens of people talking and milling about on the first floor.

"Kakashi-sensei said the test was on the third floor." Naruto spoke quietly. "Let's get by these idiots quickly. Passing by the main crowd of genin they made their way up the stairs, stealthily passing by a genjutsu on the second floor that had a number of participants stopped as they thought that it was the third floor. Team 7 ignored the obvious genjutsu, as did a number of other teams who just looked at the pathetic teams who got caught in it and snickered.

Since team seven completely passed the genjutsu by, they didn't notice Team Gai staring at their backs as they baited a number of teams into staying at the trapped second floor.

Tenten stared at the back of her soon to be husband quietly, while her two teammates sized up their possible competition.

Back with Naruto and the team, they had finally made it to the third floor where they met up with Kakashi, who was grinning like a loon.

"I see you three made it."

"Yeah." Naruto chuckled. "We did, though we did have some trouble from a team from Suna."

Kakashi's only visible eyebrow raised slightly. "And just what kind of trouble did you three have?"

"Well..." The blonde fidgeted slightly. "One of them was kind of picking on the Hokage's grandson and the redhead kid of the group is more than he appears."

The eyebrow that was raised lowered into a deep frown. Normally he wouldn't have said anything about the hokage's grandson seeing as the kid was a bit of a brat, but when Naruto sounded concerned about something like he did with the red head, then something was clearly up.

"More than he appears?"

Naruto nodded. "He's the weakest of the nine."

Kakashi's eye widened in worry. There was a jinchuriki in the exam's other than Naruto? and Suna hadn't said anything about it...yes, this was definitely a cause for worry.

"I see...Naruto, I'll tell the Hokage right away, go ahead into the exam room." And with a shunshin the jonin left, leaving the three genin alone in the hallway.

Naruto turned to his two teammates who were giving him a pointed stare.

He shrugged off the glares casually grabbing the door to the exam room. "Hey, I said I'll tell you later, lets just go inside." He noticed the two of them nod behind him and pulled the door open to reveal an entire room completely filled with ninja of all the various villages of the world.

A quick count put it well over a hundred fifty ninja, which set team 7 on edge as they walked quietly into the tension filled room, each of he participants giving them a cold and calculating glare.

"Naruto!"

_'Fuck'_ Naruto grumbled mentally as a certain blonde fangirl latched herself around his neck from behind.

"Naruto-Kun." A calmer voice replied, this one belonging to Hinata as she grabbed him possessively, glaring slightly at Ino.

"Oy Naruto." Tenten chuckled behind the blonde, laying an arm on his shoulder.

"Still covered in women eh Naruto?" The condescending voice of Kiba spoke up behind him, chuckling at the blonde genin.

"And you're still covered in fleas I see?" Naruto cracked back a wide grin on his face as he raised a fist up for the two to bump.

"Good to see you dude, Shino and I been wondering where you been lately." A nod from the bug user behind Kiba was all the greeting Naruto needed from him.

"Same here." Shikamaru broke in, coming up behind the group, Choji munching on chips like he always did.

Naruto chuckled "Been training me and my teammates. You?"

Shikamaru nodded "Same, though it was a bit troublesome."

"So the gang's all here then?" Kiba asked. "The rookie 9."

"Don't forget Team Gai." Tenten cut in, waving at everyone as her two teammates appeared beside her.

"Hello Naruto-san." Lee waved at him, throwing a small wink Sakura's way.

Sakura threw up a little in her mouth.

"Naruto." Neji nodded politely to the blonde, though you could feel a deep tension between the two if you looked hard enough. That mostly had to do with Naruto knowing about the way Neji treated Hinata and Neji being an arrogant ass towards Naruto... but nothing else was said between them as a small coughing noise interrupted the groups greetings.

"You know, you guys should really keep it down." A young man in his early 20's approached the group, he was dressed in dark purple, his sleeveless shirt, pants and a long pair of gloves on his arm were all dusky purple in color, while he wore a regular whit T-shirt underneath the sleeveless shirt and a tan cloth wrapping around his waist. A pair of round frame glasses finished off the look.

Sasuke walked to the front of the group to get a good look at the guy. "And just who are you?"

"The name's Kabuto Yakushi, and really-" he pointed behind the group at the other applicant's of the exam, who were glaring at the group as if they were a nuisance. "-You should keep it down. Everyone here is on a really short fuse." He adjusted his glasses, the light catching the edges, hiding his eyes for a moment. "I wouldn't want to be the one to set any of these guys off..." He let out a low chuckle regardless. "But, looking at you noobies reminds me of my first time here in the exams."

"This isn't the first time you've been here then?" Sasuke asked.

"Nah." Kabuto chuckled. "It's my seventh."

Kiba snorted at that. "Dude you must suck."

"Maybe." Kabuto adjusted his glasses again. "But that doesn't mean I'm not well informed." He pulled out a stack of cards from his pack. "These here are my nin-info cards." He flashed the cards to the genin there. "And since I've taken this test so many times, I've built a large amount of information on just about everyone here. Ask away, who would you like to know about?"

Many of the genin in the room were curious but the only one to really say anything at first was Naruto.

"Garra of Suna" he grunted, eyeing the bloodthirsty red head across the way.

"He want's to know about you Gaara." Temari chuckled, having overheard the kid who was really only a dozen or so feet away. "The guy's kinda sexy in a rugged sorta way, especially when you look at him from behind," She eyed the genin's ass for a few seconds, licking her lips. "And judging by all the women around him he's a ladies man too. Interesting." Now that she really got a good look at the blondie she couldn't help but stare at him, his clothing doing little to hide his hardened muscles and well toned body.

Kankuro next to her shivered at the girls lust filled tone, he'd only ever heard his mother sound like that and that never boded well for his father.

Back with Kabuto, Neji had walked forward a curious gleam in his pale eyes. "I'd like to know about Naruto Uzumaki of Konoha " The Hyuuga sent a not so hidden glare Naruto's way, which was matched by the blonde.

Kabuto, not seeing any other takers quickly pulled out those two cards. "Aww it's a shame you already know their names, takes the fun out of it." Flipping the first card over he began to read out Garra's stats.

"Let's see. Gaara of the Desert: 8 C-ranked missions and 1 B ranked! Wow not many rookie shinobi get those." Kabuto hummed to himself in thought "Since he's way out in the boonies I don't have that much info on him besides the fact that his two teammates Temari and Kankuro are both his older siblings, no clue on their sensei. A rather interesting tidbit about the kid though is that he went through that entire B -rank of his without a single scratch on him."

A small silence went through the room at that as even the other applicants turned a wary eye on the sand user.

"Now let's see. Naruto Uzumaki...Kami..." The way Kabuto nearly dropped his info card immediately had everyone's attention.

"Naruto Uzumaki." Kabuto nearly shuddered. "Graduated two and a half months ago with the other rookie nine and in that time he's done 220 D-ranked." A shudder went through the nin's body as just about everyone in the room looked at Naruto as if he was insane. "44 C-ranked." Again the people in the room looked at him like he was crazy. "1 B rank and 1 C turned A rank." THAT got everyone's attention. Kabuto adjusted his glasses again and kept reading. "He is the current head of two clans. The Uzumaki and one currently unnamed clan. He also has the last remaining member of the Yuki clan under his protection and is therefore the protector and patron of the Yuki clan. Has four reported bloodlines, one of which is supposedly sensory in origin. The second and third bloodline are the The Yuki clan's Hyōton and the Senju Mokuton. The fourth bloodline allows him to use any bloodline elements consisting of any two of the five base chakra natures. Is attuned to all five base chakra natures..." At this Kabuto shuddered again and looked at Naruto as if he was a freak of nature. "Ninjutsu is off the charts... Taijutsu is high as is trap making and ninja tools. Kenjutsu and intelligence is above average. Low genjutsu. Supposedly has a decent grasp on Fuinjutsu. Has Kage level chakra reserves. Spent five years living under the tutelage of Special Jonin and assistant torture and interrogation specialist Mitarashi Anko. Teammates are Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno. Sensei Is Kakashi Hatake of the Sharingan eye."

You could almost hear a pin drop in the deathly silent room after kabuto read out Naruto's info card.

In that silence Kabuto looked back and forth from the card to the blank faced Naruto several times before he lowered the card completely and just STARED up at the blonde genin, shocked beyond all measure. "What the hell are you?" He gasped out finally.

"Well." The blonde stated, slightly disturbed that this guy knew so much about him. And everyone, including his teammates and the other konoha teams were staring at him in both awe, and in the case of the other village nin, outright fear. "Going by your info. I'd say I'm the baddest motherfucker in the room." He shot the slackjawed Kabuto a predatory grin, before turning it on the room in general. All but a few of the occupants flinched away from him.

"Damn dobe when the hell did you do all those other D and C ranks, We just got back from our last mission like a week and a half ago and you only had like 150 D and 5 C-ranks then."

Again it was almost deathly quiet. Several of the occupants in the room were nearly about to pass out from that information. While most of the others were thinking along the lines of _'That blond brat did 70 D ranks and 39 C-ranks in a week and a half!? ...He's not human.'_

A certain grass nin tucked away in the back of the room licked her lips, a hungry grin on her face.

"During our time training, I took some time off and did a few missions...And hey." Naruto defended himself. "I needed the money to pay for those damn gauntlets of yours... besides, most of those C-ranks were in and out courier missions or clearing out a few bandits."

Still dude..." Kiba spoke in awe. "That's like major overkill."

While most of the men were planning to stay the hell away from the dangerous genin. Temari along with most of the women in the room were nearly salivating at the blonde. 70 D ranks came out to around 35,000 Ryo and C-Ranks were usually around four times as much as a D rank so 39 C ranks came out to around 78,000 Ryo **(A/N 3,500 and 7,800 USD respectively) **If blondie could make that much cash in a little over a week, just think how much he could make over the course of a year.

Even the women of other Villages were starting to think that the boy was less frightening and more husband worthy by the second. In fact a few of the all female teams were even plotting to try and kidnap the young genin for themselves and splitting him between them. None of their plans would work of course but it was a nice try regardless.

On the other side of the room a trio from Sound village were thinking along the same lines, but for entirely different reasons.

The spiky haired one turned to his mummified looking teammate "Hey Dosu, you think Orochimaru-sama want's us to go after that brat too?"

Dosu watched the blonde speak with his friends almost as if there wasn't a room full of ninja that could and would kill him at a moments notice. But Naruto didn't fool the man, he could tell by the way the blonde set his feet, and the way he held his shoulders that the kid was ready for an attack at any moment. A calm and ready stance fit for a warrior. Dosu shook his head quietly. "No Zaku, Orochimaru left specific instructions to go after the Uchiha. If he gives the order to go after Blondie later then we'll nab him."

"Shame really." The only woman on the team remarked. "He really is quite the cutie."

"Shut it Kin." Zaku hissed, causing the girl to flinch slightly. "Unless you want a repeat of yesterday." The dark eyed boy left that as the only warning.

Kin fumed, staring at her two teammates angrily, cursing her fate having been stuck with the two abusive bastards. Maybe after this mission was done, she could find a nice quiet play in Rice Field and stay the hell away from everyone. The scars and bruises on her back only serving as a sharp reminder of the 'hospitality' of her comrades.

"ALRIGHT MAGGOTS!" A voice yelled as a thick cloud of smoke appeared in the room, blocking the view of the blackboard at the back "Litsten up and listen well" The smoke cleared to reveal a dozen chunin and a tall scarred man wearing a large black trenchcoat. "The name's Ibiki Morino, Proctor of the first part of the chunin exams." Ibiki seemed to glare at everyone in the room until each almost shivered under the mans gaze. Finally after glaring at everyone in the room Ibiki held up a small tile with the number 1 on it. "This here is a seat number." He tossed the tile into a bag and picked up a stack of papers from a small desk off to the side. "You will come forward and pull a token from the bag. The number that corresponds to the seat in the room is where you will sit when we hand out the papers for you to take the written portion of the exams." He glared again. "Now get in line and get your shit."

A few minutes later we find Naruto in the front of the room, only a row behind the front most row, seated between Temari and Hinata with the rest of Team Guy and the rookie 9 spread out evenly around them.

Hinata could only smile at her good fortune. "It's good to see we're seated together Naruto-kun."

Naruto grinned beside her. "Yeah it's always nice to have a sexy lady next to you when you're taking a test." Naruto glanced over to the other side and was surprised to see the same blonde haired suna girl from before, he never really got a good look at the woman before seeing as he was too busy scaring the bujeezus out of her Catman brother or egging on her psychotic one. Now normally Naruto would have completely ignored the woman simply for the fact that she was the older sister of a mentally imbalanced and psychotic jinchuriki, that spelled Danger with a capital D for any interaction he had with her. But, he HAD heard her talking about him earlier with his enhanced hearing and the barely controlled lust in her tone had peaked the blonde's interest. A sly grin crossed the blonde's face getting Hinata's attention. When the Hyuuga girl glanced his way he nodded slightly in Temari's direction and mouthed 'Play along.'

Hinata giggled quietly and nodded.

"Yeah, always good to have a sexy lady next to you." He turned his head to Temari. "Oh look, another sexy lady to bask in their companionship."

Temari turned to regard the blonde curiously. "Are you hitting on me?"

Naruto turned to Hinata who nodded, smirking all the while. Naruto and her had a nice long talk after her little blow up after meeting Tenten and Haku and had come a to an agreement. As long as Hinata approved of the women, Naruto could flirt with them and pursue them as he pleased. So far Hinata was liking what she saw in Temari. She also smelled like dusty earth, which reminded her of Naruto after he trained all day, always a plus in her book.

Naruto turned back to Temari and nodded to the affirmative that he was indeed hitting on the sand kunoichi.

"Don't you mind that my brother is a psychopathic murderer who would probably kill you the moment he has the chance?" Temari asked blankly.

Naruto snorted at that "Nope, not in the slightest. I was trained by Anko Mitarashi. That woman get's her chuckles by torturing and maiming people, your brother's crazy doesn't even compare."

That was all the go ahead Temari needed. Her love life sucked because Gaara scared all her would be suitors off and even when people had the courage to ignore him they were still too afraid of HER to even get close. With a vicious grab that caught the kyubi Jinchuriki's collar, the sand Kunoichi crushed her lips to the other blonde's mouth.

Naruto's head spun as her lips smashed into his _'DAMN she moves fast.'_ The only thing the blonde could do was hang on for the ride, after a few seconds he got more into the kiss, and a few minutes after that Hinata surprisingly even got so bold as to join in, adding a third tongue to the mix.

Those around the trio could only watch in silent wonder at their daring.

In back by a waterfall genin Ino was rubbing her legs together gently, watching the three go at it _'Kami that is so fucking hot.'_ How she wished Naruto would kiss her like that.

To the far right Tenten was watching the trio with an almost predatory gaze. When Naruto had explained his situation to her after Haku had spilled the beans on him, at first the weapons mistress had been skeptical but after he had gone into more detail Tenten had started to see all the potential benefits having a large clan like what Naruto was shooting for... not to mention, seeing her future hubby going at it with two other women was surprisingly sexy...maybe it was just the blonde's pure animal magnetism at work. Whatever it was, Tenten neither knew nor cared, she was just enjoying the free show

A few rows in front of Ino, Kin was nearly choking on her own saliva, watching the three genin play tonsil hockey in front of the entire chunin exam, proctors and all was making the girl go crazy. _'fuck cute, that kid's sexy as hell and he's got balls as big as boulders to do that in front of a room full of shinobi.' _The sound kunoichi's hand slipped down unseen, trying to relieve herself of some of the frustration those three had created within her. _ 'Fuck I need to get laid, Oto shinobi are so prudish and freaking abusive.'_

Sakura who was on the opposite side of the room from most of the other could only stare. She wasn't moving, was barely breathing, she was practically dead to the world. Only one thought passed through her mind during the entire thing. _'Why is Naruto making out in front of hundreds of people...and why is that turning me on?'_ Sadly neither of those questions would be answered until much later...

While the women of the room were in various states of arousal from the show. All the men were in various states of jealousy at the blonde mavericks incredible luck with the ladies.

in the back row next to Shino, Sasuke was silent. He had been watching Naruto intently, still dead set on getting the blonde to answer his questions...though to a less homosexual degree he watched the three make out with a mild look of interest.

Shikamaru was below Sasuke's row ignoring it completely. _'Too troublesome...'_

Kiba who was off in his own little corner of the room could only shake his head. _'That lucky son of a bitch...'_

Directly behind the trio by several rows Neji just huffed indignantly. _'Have they no shame?'_

Choji nearly choked on his chips but was resuscitated with a slap to the back by Shikamaru who had the good fortune of sitting next to his buddy.

Shino was silent, but internally... _'Jealousy? ...How illogical...'_

Lee...well aside from his eyes going more bug eyed than normal, the young boy could barely contain himself as he nearly shouted out about the 'Flames of Youth.' But Gai had beaten a bit of restraint into the kid so he wouldn't get his team thrown out from him yelling too much.

Gaara who, like Kiba, was off in his own corner could care less as he was in his happy place, it just so happened that his happy place was in a lake of blood with ninja's begging for his mercy and not receiving any as he crushed the life out of them...charming fellow really...

Kankuro on the other hand only a few seats away from the lovebirds was seething in an almost unholy rage. He was about to walk over to Naruto's seat and geld the bastard himself and it was only the threat of them getting kicked out and his brother killing him that stayed his hand. Oh, but the blonde bastard would taste his puppets wrath soon, Ohhh so very soon.

The two other Sound ninja, having the good fortune of sitting together like Shikamaru and Choji could only watch, amused by Naruto's gal more than anything.

As it stood the two women were sitting in the Naruto's lap, making out in front of over a hundred well trained killers and despite that fact, no one in the room knew how to deal with it. Even Ibiki who had been explaining the rules of the test until the sounds of sucking and kissing got too distracting even for him.

"YOU THREE!" He barked, finally coming out of his shock, pointing to the offending trio. "WHAT IN THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?"

Naruto removed his lips from the two women to yell at him. "Yo we heard you tall dark and gruesome. No asking questions, no cheating, 10 points, cheating takes two points off, not answering a question takes 1. We lose our points the entire team goes, final question 45 minutes from now."

"That still doesn't explain what you're doing!" He barked.

"What's it look like we're doing asshole? We're not cheating and we're not asking questions so fuck off unless you want me to take points from you for you asking us questions." Naruto turned back to his two babes as he flipped Ibiki off.

"2 points from your score!" The man yelled angrily.

Nobody could notice it seeing as Naruto was still sucking face, but the blonde had a delightful little grin on his face, they had gotten their tests a little while ago and Naruto had spent a few minutes going over a little prank he was going to pull on Ibiki Having heard from Anko-chan about the uptight head of I&T Naruto was practically chomping at the bit to screw with the guy the moment he showed up. With the two women right next to him, it was simple enough matter to pull off and it benefited the both of them. Now to just bait Ibiki. "And I care because why scar face?" Naruto shot back snarkily. "This point system is just a contrived way to make us cautious, but so long as I have one point , the rest of this shit doesn't matter."

The Special Jonin didn't have a come back for that, aside from kissing two women the kid hadn't really done anything wrong, So in a way the kid was right, the point's really didn't matter much and Ibiki had taken the kids points without any real reason besides him being a bit belligerent...It took a moment before Ibiki realized that the kid had actually gotten under his skin, a very hard thing to do when it came to the Head Torture and Interrogation specialist. That was when Ibiki knew to back off, he wouldn't have some snot nosed punk getting under his skin again. "Alright, ignoring those three, the test begins NOW!"

Ibiki turned to grab a clipboad from the table next to him when a loud slamming of pencils nearly made Ibiki smack his head into the nearby wall as he was turning away from the exam participants. Slowly turning back to the trio he noticed that the three troublemakers had their pages turned face down, pencils atop them and from what Ibiki could see on the back of the page there was definitely a large amount of writing showing through on each.

Ibiki's jaw dropped. _'That cheeky bastard set me up.'_ He realized in shock. _'The kid already had his done and the other two must have copied off him. That's why he didn't care about missing points...Papers done before the test even started just to make me look like a fool...'_ Ibiki was too shocked to say anything for a solid thirty seconds before a feral grin crossed his face. _'Kid's got some stones I'll give him that' _Ibiki chuckled, nodding his head Naruto's way signifying the brat had won this round before turning back and to what he was doing.

Meanwhile in Naruto's head.

**"Kit... that was awesome...I bow to your pranking skills this time, that look on Ibiki's face was priceless.**

_'Heh, he didn't know who he was fucking with. This test was easy compared to the shit Anko forced me to learn.'_ If this was what the exam was going to be like all the way through...A dark and evil laugh echoed through Naruto's head, the mere thought sending shivers down the spines of everyone in the room.

This was going to be fun.

** -ooo-**

**That's it for this chapter.**

**if you're confused about how the women are acting around Naruto...well that'll be explained later so just be patient ;D**

_**Totally random and batshit insane, just how I like it. If you liked it too leave a review, it's like crack for me and I need my fix to continue to write this insanity.**_

_**No but seriously...review...or I'll find you.**_ಠ**_**ಠ


	16. Chapter 16

_**Ok, sorry this took so long, a combination of sickness, a death in extended family, and me moving out of my old room into a larger room kind of postponed this story for a good bit.**_

_**Ok, now.**_

_**TheRazgrizDragon: You. Yes, you. I love you. **_

_**Why do I love you? Simple. I was pissed off for a little bit. It starts with the other story I posted the other day. My Naruto x familiar of zero cross. I was REALLY down because of it. Why, you ask? simple. I post the thing and go to sleep, wake up, 20 FUCKING PM's telling me "Hey, you fucked up Itachi's character." ...well not in those exact words since curse words get censored through PM's But they were strongly worded letters telling me in no uncertain terms that I Quote-unquote "Fucked up."**_

_**I took a massive hit to the ego from that, not that my ego needed to be that high in the first place but that's beside the point. What is the point is that I had a decent idea, a decent continuation from the previous chapter, but everybody said I was moving too fast, and rereading the chapter slowly and taking in everything I wrote. I agree, and that's just depressing.**_

_**I had to rewrite the chapter and repost it because I kept getting PM's with people yelling at me, and that pissed me off, not only that but it was SOOOOO difficult because nothing would stay on the page. *Writes ten lines* *Reads* FUUUUUU *Erases* *Repeat for three hours***_

_**Now here I am venting in the authors notes... BUT FUCK THAT, cuz you dude, *Points at TheRazgrizDragon* Yes you, you deserve a fucking cookie. I'm going through my emails and I see 20 PM's for my Itachi story and they're all angry and I'm like FUUUUU. I check a bit later and see a new review for sage and I'm like "...I don't know if I can take anymore rage!" *clicks* *reads* *Processing* FUCK YES. Wall of text not withstanding. You cheered me up dude and helped me write another chapter of Itachi:Familiar of Zero AND this chapter right here. So give this motherfucker a damn cookie **_

_**This guy right here. -**__**TheRazgrizDragon**__** - Him, yes him. Click on his shit and give him a fucking cookie. Take five seconds, click his name, go to his shit, send him a PM, WITH COOKIE ATTACHED**_

_**Preferably not a tracking cookie or any malicious cookies, he doesn't deserve that. What he does deserve is a nice fresh and warm out of the oven cookie, topped with five star topping goodness.**_

_**Fuck yeah.**_

_**So do it.**_

_**Do it now.**_

_**Also, just for him, some of his ideas are going in the story. Fuck yeah. **_

_**Second off: To my anon reviewer MasterOfWords. Did I ever claim that I was writing an amazing piece of literature? No, I didn't. Personally, I like writing harems and comedy, and frankly I don't care if my story is shit. I am writing this for MY enjoyment, I like posting it on this site because I like hearing what people think of the story and allowing other people to enjoy what I do .**_

_**You claim that I don't have any amazing elemental battles in this story? You stopped at chapter 7, the wave arc has some nice element battles and in this chapter Naruto is facing Orochi-fucking-maru, how are those not good battles? Sure, it does take a bit to get to the fighting but so does most every story. I will admit you're right about the Kakashi fight, I never really liked the bell test. I was pumped to kick Kakashi's ass but I really couldn't feel it that chapter. So if you want to blame me for that then fine.**_

_**You're complaining about Naruto marrying Anko at 7? You do realize that there are people who are put into arranged marriages before they are even born right? In some countries they are in fact married when they come out of the womb. So they are married before they are even 1 year old. Those people weren't given a choice, Naruto was and he chose too because he saw Anko as more of an older sister up until they started fooling around and then the lemon during chapter 13.**_

_**Speaking of lemons, 15 chapters. 100K+ words. 1 Lemon. **_

_"__and will be focused on your perverted need and desire to write useless smut."_

_**Yeah, because 1 lemon in this already large story is useless smut? Hell I don't even have any more lemons currently planned yet, I kinda just add them in when I feel like it. Which is basically how I write this story. I take established canon and fuck with it. I plan on diverting at some point but most of the stuff that happens independent of Naruto is going to happen at some point. So don't get your panties in a twist over it. I have 1 text doc that has all my ideas and stuff in it. My outlines for a chapter are minimal at best, here's an example for my 4th chapter **_

Ch 4: next day, more Naruto bonding stuff (Probably the shower), shopping with anko, ****Sarutobi spying on them and thinking to himself****

_**"That is basically how my chapters are set up, pretty much I do all this stuff on the fly in my head, I however do keep another text doc that has all the little scenes I want to add and skew. The Haku meeting and convincing Zabuza scene were this.**_

_**And finally A good trolling is those that have an element of truth. If you are indeed a troll then I have something to tell you.**_

_**"I ain't even mad"**_

_**My story has over a 190 reviews, (95% of which are at the very least somewhat positive) 90,000 views, 15 C2's, 430+ Faves and 420+ alerts. Clearly someone likes the story, **__**which has been and shall always remain a adventure/humor story at heart, its in that section for a reason.**__** So until you get an account and tell me what you told me to my face instead of hiding behind that little bitch wall of anonymity, write your own damn story and see if it's that popular. Till then, kindly stfu.**_

_**OK, back on track now... Let it be known that I hate writing the actual written part of the chunin exams. I blame my long seeded hatred for homework and tests, so yeah, fuck that **_

_**Let it also be known that I dub this chapter the old spice chapter, for this chapter was birthed in the crucible of old spice guy commercials. Anything is possible when you read my story and don't take it too seriously like that douche bag anon reviewer.**_

_**I'm on a summon.**_

_**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, nor do I make any money off it."**_

_**-ooo-**_

"speech"

_'Thoughts'_

**"Kyubi speech"**

_**'Kyubi thoughts'**_

_**-ooo-**_

_**Chapter 16: Snake women, Snake men and evil hickey's**_

"Anko...what're you doing?" Haku asked the snake mistress curiously as she had been walking casually to meet the Hokage to find out what she should be doing now that she was a ninja of Konoha, when she had come across the snake mistress messing with a large...canon like thing

"What's it look like I'm doing?" She snapped back, loading a large black tarp like thing into the barrel.

"Honestly...I have no idea." Haku mused, looking over the contraption, then staring off in the direction the device was pointed. "You're planning to launch yourself into the academy building aren't you?"

"Yep, they chose me to fuck with some genin and that's exactly what I'm going to do."

"Well...have fun with that." The ice mistress turned on her heels and continued her walk to the Hokage Tower.

_**-ooo-**_

"What the hell are you doing?" Zabuza asked curiously, coming up on the snake mistress only a few minutes later, having the same idea as Haku since they hadn't really been told what they should be doing right now with the chunin exams locking down most of the higher ranked missions for them to do.

"What's it look like I'm doing?" she snapped like before, getting a tad irritated that people kept asking her the same damn question.

"Hmm." Zabuza stared at the cannon, then looked over his shoulder at the building it was pointed at curiously. "You're planning to launch yourself into that building over there...isn't that where the chunin exams are taking place?"

"Yep, fucking with Genin, getting paid to do it and Naruto is in the exams, so this is going to be fun.

"Heh, the Gaki is in this thing? I might just join you in there."

"Nah." She waved a hand in front of her face. "Too cramped, Go chill at the tower in the forest of death they're gonna have the next part of the exams in the forest of death."

Zabuza snorted. "They still have those there?"

"Yeah and if enough people survive the forest they're saying that they might have some prelims this year, so if you want to watch some genin beat the snot out of each other head there.

"Oh, I just might." The ex mist jonin grinned ferally. "If the gaki is in this thing, he's going to wreck just about everyone." He chuckled again and walked off for the Hokage tower."

_**-ooo-**_

"For all the people left in the room..." Ibiki growled, staring out over the chunin hopefuls, most of them holding their breath in one way or another. Mere moment's before he had done his 10th question spiel and quite a few teams left, chickening out rather than take the question and risk their future. Those weaklings would never make chunin. But this batch...this batch held promise, especially the Blonde idiot that had thrown him off his cool earlier in the test... hell he still had the two women sitting in his lap...lucky bastard.

"You all pass." The scarred man grinned, much to the confusion of the room.

_'Told you, pay up.' _ Naruto chuckled under his breath as Kyubi started grumbling about troublesome blondes and their thrice damned luck.

**"I'll pay you with some useful information later, why I tried to bet against you I'll never know." **The grumbling continued as Ibiki explained the reason behind the test and yadda yadda yadda. The old scarred bastard could yak like the worst of them and to top it off he was totally boring while he did it.

_'At least Sakura didn't give up, I was about to lay down the law when she started raising her hand, I guess she has more confidence in herself now._

Suddenly Ibiki froze, glancing at the widows to his right. Not a moment later the windows shattered and a large black...something flew in, throwing kunai into the floor and ceiling.

**"Three guesses who that is."** Kyubi chuckled. Naruto just snorted in agreement, even if he couldn't sense the woman's chakra, Anko had a very...special way to make an entrance...namely the batshit insane way.

"Alright Maggots listen up!" the ball yelled still in it's twirl to release Anko while pinning up a sheet that had the words 'The beautiful and sexy proctor of the second test has arrived! Anko Mitarashi!'

**"Proctors seem to love calling you all maggots, I wonder why that is?"**

_'Eh who cares, I'm enjoying my sexy lady show right now.'_

**"True, true." **The fox nodded, watching Anko land on her feet after the sheet thing had settled.

"The names Anko Mitarashi and I'll be your proctor for the second stage of the exams." Anko stared out over the group of chunin hopefuls. "Damn Ibiki you must be slipping. Twenty-six teams? I expected half that.

Ibiki appeared from behind the sheet that had blocked his view of the room, a small smirk on his lips. "Maybe we just have a good bunch this year, especially the blonde playboy over there." He raised a finger in Naruto's direction and Anko's face lit up.

"Hey gaki, how'd you do?" She grinned.

"Heh, made out with two hot women in front of hundred's of ninja and played a prank on Ibiki, You?" Naruto chuckled as most of the genin in the room were giving them a curious glance.

Anko chuckled "Nice, and you know me, I wouldn't pass up the chance to fuck with some greenhorns."

Naruto just shook his head. "I know I shouldn't be surprised by that, so what's crackin sexy? Where's the next stage of the exams?"

Anko snorted at that "You're gonna love this one, they picked training ground 44 this year."

Naruto froze, then a small grin formed on his lips. "Training ground 44?" He let Temari and Hinata off his lap, one knew what was going on the other was quite clueless. "Ohhh this is going to be fun." Naruto cackled evilly.

"Wait wait wait." One random genin stood up staring at the snake mistress angrily. "We heard earlier that you were that guys sensei." He pointed to Naruto. He turned to Ibiki "Isn't that a conflict of interest?"

Naruto and Anko stood there for a moment taking in the genin's words, then looked back at each other, then back to the genin before busting out laughing, both rolling on the floor holding their ribs nearly dying of laughter.

The genin that stood up now stared in barely hidden shock then anger. "What's so funny, that's a legitimate question, a proctor shouldn't have any attachments to the participants of the test, they could help them cheat."

If anything the two's laughter increased.

"Ohohoho my Kami that is hysterical." Naruto laughed, finally making it to his feet. "Listen here numbnuts." He poked a finger at the genin, the rest of the participants staring on quietly as the insanity unfolded. "That woman over there." He threw a thumb over his shoulder at the still laughing Anko. "Her idea of survival training is dumping you in the wilderness in the middle of winter in nothing but your boxers and a dull, rusty Kunai." He fixed the genin with a playful glare. "So don't think she'll go easy on me in this test, if anything she'll make it harder on me just to make this whole thing more interesting for her." Naruto glanced over at Anko who was just now getting to her feet. "By the way did you start a betting pool on how many asses I kick this time around sexy?"

Anko snorted. "As if, I learned my lesson last time when you cleared out all our wallets with that stupid stunt you pulled. How many Anbu did it take to catch you that time, 26?"

"27." He corrected her, walking over to the woman. Shocking all the people in the room again at how he could evade so many high level ninja. "So let's get this fucker started, Gaki away!" Naruto yelled leaping out the broken window.

"You heard the gaki" She hooted, leaping out the window after the blond. "Meet us at training ground 44. Sexy away!"

The room was silent for a good minute before anyone even tried to say anything.

"Anyone else disturbed by that." kiba spoke in the deathly quiet room. A chorus of nods answered him.

_**-ooo-**_

"Welcome everyone" Anko raised her hands in front of the gate to training ground 44. " To the Forest of Death!" she cackled as several flashes of lightning and evil laughter appearing out of nowhere despite the fact that it was a sunny day and no one was in the forest yet.

"What the heck was that!?" Kiba shouted.

"Oh" Naruto grinned, his fangs creeping over his bottom lip, making it almost feral. "It's Just the natural ambiance of the place."

"And how would you know?"

"Um." Naruto rolled his eyes and shook his head like Kiba was an idiot. "I'd think I'd know where my house is."

Kiba's jaw dropped. "You LIVE in there" He pointed to the densely packed tree line where loud yips and howls of large predatory animals could be heard "...what the fuck is wrong with you!?"

Murmurs came from most of the people around them as Kiba started bitching about how unfair this all was.

"Oh quite being a chicken shit Kiba" Naruto walked to the edge of the fence and threw a kunai into one of the limbs of a tree about 20 yards away. A small screech came from within followed by a small rustling as a house cat sized bug of some unknown variety fell out. "See." Naruto turned around to face the other genin. "Just keep an eye on your ass and you'll be fine."

"As much fun as is watching you scare genin Gaki." Anko broke in, holding up a stack of papers. "You all need to sign these release forms before we get the test started."

A couple calls of 'why?' came from a few of the genin.

"Because" She spoke cheerfully. "If you guys don't sign it and die in there Konoha will be liable for your death and we can't have that." A couple loud gulps came from some of the greener teams but an equal number of glares met the woman's own, showing that a good portion of the genin didn't care for her threats. She held up two scrolls one black the other white. "These two scrolls are what you're going to be fighting over in there. Heaven and Earth. You'll need one of each to continue on to the third part of the exams, each team gets one and you'll only get it when your entire team has signed their consent forms."

"Yo Sexy" Naruto yelled from. "What're the rules of engagement in there? Can we do whatever the hell we want or what?"

"Shut it gaki, I was just getting to that." She held up a scroll with a map of the area on it. "Training ground 44. A ring of forest 10 kilometers from its center in every direction, a tower sits in the center of the forest along with a river that runs through most of the training ground. You have 5 days to get the other half of your scrolls and make it to the tower in one piece. If you lose a teammate during the test you're automatically disqualified. If you leave the forest before the time limit is over you're disqualified and if you look at the content of your scrolls before you reach the tower you're also disqualified."

"Why's that last one disqualify you?" Tenten piped up from the back.

Anko turned an irritated glare at the mouse bun-haired girl. "Because girly, sometimes ninja are entrusted with confidential information, so this will be a test on trustworthiness but don't forget that this is first and foremost a survival test." She glared at all the people in the clearing. "You'll be facing both nature and each other in there. So the last piece of advice I'll give is-" She turned away from the group handing the stack of papers to a couple of chunin for distribution. "-Don't die." She waved behind her as she walked off to mingle with the other chunin there.

**"She is such a badass."**

_'I know, it makes me all tingly inside knowing that I can tap that whenever the hell I want.'_ Naruto stared after his first wife, her trenchcoat doing little to hide her firm derriere from his hungry gaze.

**"Alright Romeo, go sign your papers and let's go crack some skulls."**

_'Alright alright.' _ Naruto chuckled internally walking with his team over to the booth to turn in their consent forms for a scroll.

Half an hour later we find every team at their own gate surrounding the forest.

"Naruto, you got our heaven scroll safe?"

"Yeah Sasuke." The blonde whispered. "It's in a seal on my arm."

"Good" Sasuke nodded. "Keep it close and let's go after the first team we can, I say we hit that sound team, they were radiating killing intent our way all through the first exam."

"Eh, we'll hit who we find, unless its a team from Konoha. We don't fight comrades alright?"

His two teammates nodded to the affirmative.

A loud siren rang out over the area and the gates snapped open. "Alright!" Naruto pumped his fist. "Let's go kick some ass!" As each team rushed into the forest.

_**-ooo-**_

"You know the plan." A kusa Genin hissed to her two teammates as they rushed through the gate. "Separate them, but leave the blonde one, he's caught my interest as well."

"Yeah." The two agreed.

_'Naruto Uzumaki. You've just become very interesting kukukuku.'_

_**-ooo-**_

"That was easy." Kiba barked, grabbing the earth scroll from a trapped team of konoha genin only a few minutes into the test.

"Yes, it was." Hinata agreed, Shino nodding next to her.

"Well we've already got our scroll let's head for the tower.

"Hai"

_**-ooo -**_

"Please no, have mercy!" A nondescript shinobi pleaded.

"No." Gaara droned. "Sand Burial"

"AHHhhh"

"And there goes another one." Kankura grimaced. "How many does that make now?"

"Eight." Temari scrunched her nose up as another wave of blood rocketed up into the air "Make that nine. Gaara must really be excited for this exam, I haven't seen him kill this many people in a long time."

"Eh, it's probably that Uzumaki brat you were kissing earlier." Kankuro gave the woman a scandalous look. "Seems the brat really got under Gaara's skin."

"Oh shut up Kankuro." Temari huffed. "Naruto is cute and since Gaara is Gaara, I haven't been able to get a date, ever. I'm taking what I can get."

"Temari." Gaara's dull voice asked behind her, making the woman jump at how close he was, Kankuro was praying for her soul and sanity as they spoke. "Do you like that Uzumaki boy?" Temari turned to stare at her sand using brother cautiously as he approached her, the dried up husks of his latest victims laying behind him.

"Y-yes." She nodded slowly, slightly concerned by the way that he was looking at her.

"I see." He turned away from his two siblings and started walking towards the tower. "Hmm, maybe I shouldn't kill him then...perhaps I should only torture him." He mused to himself, walking back over to another downed shinobi and squashing him like a grape.

Kankuro and Temari were walking behind him when Kankuro whispered to Temari "Did Gaara just say he wasn't going to kill something?"

"I-I think so."

"I'm scared Temari..."

"Me too..."

_**-ooo-**_

"Contact." Naruto whispered, stopping his teammates. "In the tree's ahead and to our right." Naruto had removed his hat allowing his ears to poke out proudly, providing a better understanding of their surroundings.

"What do you want to do?" Sasuke asked.

"I'm going to sneak around and take him from behind. " Naruto sensed ahead for a moment before creating a shadow clone. "Keep walking forward and pretend he's not there."

Sasuke and Sakura nodded, grabbed the clone and kept walking, while Naruto himself used his hours of hide and don't get stabbed training from Anko to sneak up on a lone Ame shinobi who was watching his teammates and clone, looking for a place to strike.

Not even bothering with the killing the poor bastard , he snuck up behind the oblivious genin and struck him in the back of the neck, knocking him out. Grabbing him before he fell to his death Naruto hopped down to his teammates.

"These guys really need to learn to be aware of their surroundings" Naruto tsked. "I almost feel bad for this guy."

"Yeah, but he's still an enemy."

"That's why I said almost Sasuke" Naruto dug through the genin's pouch and pulled out an earth scroll. "Hah, this dumbass had the scroll on him, how stupid can you be?" Naruto just shook his head. "Now that we got both our scrolls lets make like a ninja and get the fuck out of here."

After thirty minutes of tree hopping the team landed on a large branch to take a breather.

"Alright, we're almost half way there already." Naruto pointed ahead of him and to the right. "Up ahead about 1500 meters is the river that goes through the center of this place. We reach it, then haul ass to the tower, hopefully we'll be the first ones there and there won't be anyone waiting for us, if there is then keep your eyes peeled alright?"

A pair of nods answered him.

"Good, now since you two don't know you're way around here we'll go over the general topog-" Naruto suddenly stiffened, eye's going wide. Almost immediately 10 clones of him phased into existence and spun around, flashing through handsign's at a speed neither of the two genin behind him had seen from him before. Naruto then inhaled deeply, gathering an immense amount of chakra for a genin, hell immense for most jonin even. Just then a loud roar could be heard and looking farther into the dark forest Sakura and Sasuke could see a large force of some kind tearing through the tree limbs, snapping the several foot think branches like toothpicks.

"Wind Release: Daitoppa" All 10 Naruto's exhaled at the same time, sending a similar technique out, which formed into one large wave of wind.

The two techniques clashed, pushing against each other for several long seconds until Naruto's technique failed, which surprised both his teammates. Thankfully the other wind technique had lost most of its power during the collision. It still would have knocked the three genin off the branch they were standing on if they hadn't anchored themselves to the tree with chakra.

The three genin were just getting back to their feet when a distinct clapping was heard.

"Good, very good kukukukuku." a dark chuckling laughed echoed around them, none of them able to pinpoint it until a woman with a Kusa headband hopped down from a tree above and towards where the other Daitoppa had appeared from. "I didn't expect that to be stopped so easily, you continue to impress Naruto-kun." A suffocating killing intent washed over the area as the woman leveled a playful glare their way. "How about we play a little game?" She chuckled evilly, the killing intent nearly doubling, sending Sakura to her knees, Sasuke was having a better time of it having felt Naruto's killing intent on the bridge in wave, and Naruto was standing there, beads of sweat forming on his brow, this...thing was putting out almost as much killing intent as he could manage at full anger...and the blonde didn't think that this woman was even a little miffed about anything, so this was all just...fake? That thought sent a shiver of fear down the normally fearless jinchuriki's spine.

Sasuke stared at the woman, taking several deep breaths to calm his beating heart as several images of his painful death flashed through his mind. _'What the hell is this guy? He's putting out so much killing intent it isn't even funny.'_ He stared back at Sakura, who had almost passed out from the pressure the woman exuded. A quick smack to the cheek roused her however.

"S-Sasuke." Sakura blinked, rubbing her aching cheek, then her eyes again landed on the Kusa genin. "We have to get out of here, she's too dangerous."

"Kukukuku, The girl there is smart I see." A wicked grin spread across her face. "But it won't matter regardless, you'll never outrun me. A predator always catches it's prey one way or another." The bloodlust pouring off of the woman by now was starting to affect the animals around them now.

"Sasuke, get ready to fight, I don't think this bitch is kidding, I doubt I'd be able to outrun her." A tense nod answered him.

"Good, you at least know when you've been cornered and when to fight at your best." The woman chuckled in that strange throaty chuckle she seemed to enjoy using.

"Sakura." Naruto whispered behind him. "Keep out of this fight, lay some traps if you think they'll help but don't try to fight directly." Another nod answered him.

"Kukukuku, I think it's time we begin." The woman cackled, rushing forward to strike at the three genin.

The three scattered Sakura falling back to hide in the surrounding trees and lay some traps, while Naruto and Sasuke leapt to the side, with the Kusa genin between them

"Sasuke, fire!"

"Right!" The two flew through several handseals before bringing a hand up to their mouth.

"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique" The breathed out a torrent of flames at the same time, immolating the spot where their attacks met.

When the flames cleared there was no sign of the enemy genin.

"Did we get her?" Sasuke asked cautiously.

"I highly doubt that" Naruto replied, that would be too easy.

"You're right." A voice whispered in his ear. Naruto's eyes widened. Reacting on instinct, a tazer already on the tips of his fingers striking out behind him, what he didn't expect was the woman to dodge the surprise attack like it was nothing. Going low into the serpent stance Naruto launched a dozen strikes at the woman, both hands powered by a tazer. However, every strike was dodged or diverted in a shocking display of skill, something that was on par with Jonin level taijutsu or higher. The woman laughed in his face as he tried desperately to land a hit.

"You seem to be having trouble Naruto-kun, maybe I should help you?" And by help she meant placing her foot right into Naruto's sternum stopping his forward momentum cold, eyes flying wide as blood flew from his mouth.

"Naruto!" Sasuke yelled dropping down from above to land a kick to the Kusa genin's head, only for it to turn to mud under his strike. "Fuck!" Sasuke ran over to his downed teammate, helping him to his feet. "That woman isn't normal."

"You're telling me." Naruto grunted, rubbed his bruised ribs. "She hits like a damn Jonin, and if I hadn't ran a bit of earth chakra through my bones at the last moment I'd probably have a couple broken ribs right now. " Naruto pulled himself from Sasuke's grasp, favoring one side of his body. "We need to come up with a plan"

"You think I'll give you the chance?" A voice said behind them slamming a foot down into the place they were standing just moments before.

Spiderweb like cracks formed in the wood as the two genin leapt forward, spinning around into a crouch to face the woman.

"You both have nice reflexes, but you need to be more aware of your surroundings." The woman tsked slightly. "Come, both of you show me your Kekkei Genkai and make this fight a little more interesting."

The two boys glanced at each other for a moment before nodding. One's eyes turned a bright crimson while the other started going through several handsign's for a elemental jutsu.

Rushing forward Sasuke pulled out several Shuriken and threw them at the grass nin, who easily dodged the straight forward attack. Grunting in Irritation the Uchiha pulled out a kunai. The two ninja met in a clash of steel, the woman holding a Kunai in her hand as well.

"Show me what those eyes can do." She hissed hungrily, making Sasuke shiver slightly but he wouldn't back down from anyone, especially not this pedo bitch. The next few seconds were a frantic clash of steel and taijutsu as Sasuke used what skills he had and the foresight of his Sharingan to block, dodge or otherwise deflect the Kusa genin's incoming attacks. But despite his best effort and superior eyes, the woman was just too skilled, too strong and above all too fast.

"You alright Sasuke?" Naruto pulled his teammate to his feet after he was knocked back by the kusa genin.

"I've felt better" He turned a glare on his teammate. "What the hell were you doing while I was getting my ass kicked?"

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Planning, you ass. The bitch has an amazing taijutsu style." Naruto narrowed his eyes, speaking loud enough for the woman to hear. "Snake style if I'm not mistaken." Naruto had a hunch on who the woman actually was, after all there were only three living practitioners of the snake style currently alive, and only one of them would be able to pull off a Jutsu of that power.

"Kukukukukuku" The woman chuckled. "Very perceptive of you, I guess Anko-chan taught you my style fairly well from what I saw earlier, you modified it for your body type if I'm not mistaken, correct?"

"Correct, Orochimaru..."

The women laughed again, reaching a hand up to her face to grab the skin there, and in a sickening display ripped the skin from her face to reveal the pale skin and yellow eyes of Anko's hated teacher. "Was I really that obvious Naruto-kun?" The now male voice hissed, amused.

"Only one person other than me and Anko knows the Snake Style and only you're strong enough to force a wind jutsu like mine back with one of your own."

"How very perceptive." Orochimaru clapped his hands together a couple times mockingly. "That still doesn't change the fact that you're fighting me now does it?" A vicious gleam came to his eye as he stared down the two genin.

Naruto tensed. Here he was, the bastard that had made Anko's life hell and he couldn't do a thing about it, just the man's presence was making his bones hurt. There was still a vast plateau of power difference between him and the Snake Sanin and Orochimaru knew it, he was just toying with them. "Sasuke." Naruto whispered. "We need to distract him long enough to get the hell out of here. There's no way in hell we're taking Orochi-fucking-maru in a straight up fight."

"I'm all ears, what's the plan?"

"Twin hook, followed by hoarfrost. You think we can do that then make a run for it?"

Sasuke ran the plan through his head for a moment before nodding. "You better make it massive though, I don't think this guys notices anything but wide scale and highly destructive."

"Can do. Go!" Naruto and Sasuke rushed forward, each running to one side of the massive limb coming at the Snake Sanin from the side. Naruto pulled out his ninjato, running wind chakra down the blade. Sasuke did the same with a kunai and lightning chakra, Naruto having shown him how right before the exams.

_'What are they up to?' _Orochimaru wondered curiously, dodging the strikes the two genin tried to land on him, knowing he wouldn't be able to block the element enhanced blades, falling back a few feet the man regurgitated his katana, kusanagi from a snake within his mouth. Now, brandishing his longer blade the twin attacks from the two genin let loose a ring of steel on steel.

"Naruto!" Sasuke yelled as his kunai was knocked aside by the Kusanagi, the only thing saving him from being stabbed was Naruto's ninjato having to be blocked instead.

"Got it." Naruto yelled, forming several handseals. 8 clones flickered to life, four shadow and four water clones each of them pairing off and surrounding Orochimaru as Sasuke and the original Naruto leapt back.

The four water clones in the front held up a single handseal. "Water Release: Kirigakure no Jutsu" The air in front of them filled with a heavy mist.

The clones behind the first set grabbed ahold of their water clone cousins and yelled "Ice Release: Daihyōbakuha" In a loud bang the shadow clones exploded, spraying the remains of their brethren at the hidden mist jutsu, the mist then began to freeze rapidly as the hyōton jutsu took effect, encasing the area surrounded in mist in a solid block of ice.

The two genin glanced at each other for a moment before they turned tail and ran, booking it as quickly as they could to the tower, the two tensed slightly when a rustle of bushes sounded from their left, but they relaxed a moment later when Sakura appeared next to them.

"You think that will hold him Naruto?" Sakura asked quickly falling in line next to the fleeing duo.

"If it doesn't then I don't know what will." Naruto replied.

Sasuke stared behind them, Sharingan still active. "Just who was that guy Naruto?"

Naruto glanced over at his teammate. "What, You didn't pay attention in history class Sasuke?"

Sasuke shrugged. "Did you?"

"Touche." Naruto conceded. "Well. you two at least know of the title Sanin right?"

A pair of nods answered him.

"Well that was Orochimaru, the Snake Sanin and one of Konoha's most wanted missing nin." Here Naruto's face twisted in a scowl. "He's also my sworn enemy and a damn pedophile as well."

"And what the hell is he doing here?" Sasuke cursed. Seriously, why the hell was a missing nin and a Sanin of all things fucking around in a chunin exam of all things?

"Orochimaru's a scientist Sasuke." Naruto spoke tonelessly. "And that's a very _loose_ definition of the word." A grimace crossed his features. "The guy experiments on anything he has an interest in, his biggest dream is to master every ninjutsu in the world."

"That's...Impossible." Sakura said.

"Yeah." Naruto agreed. "For any mortal and normal person... but one of Orochimaru's biggest experiments was a way for him to cheat death and above that were his experiments on bloodlines so that he could gain access to all spheres of elemental techniques, that means my bloodlines and your eyes are probably a big interest to him Sasuke."

A shiver went up Sasuke's spine. If that bastard wanted his eyes then he'd have to pry them out of his cold dead eye sockets first. Another shiver went up his spine when he realized that the man probably could and would do that anyway...

"Let's just get out of her- Naruto!" Sasuke refocused back on the path ahead just in time to duck a kick aimed at his head. Naruto wasn't so lucky.

The blow blindsided the blonde genin and launched him towards a tree where he slammed into the bark of the aged wood, sending spiderweb cracks through it as the blow to his head knocked him out cold.

Standing where the blow had struck was a very frayed and very pissed Orochimaru. His clothing was ripped in several places and there were even a few red lines of blood where his skin shedding ability hadn't healed all the damage the blonde brat had dealt him. He hadn't expected a mass exploding ice clone-hidden mist combination, hell he had never even heard of the two techniques being used together before.

"I grow tired of these games. Orochimaru growled, approaching the Uchiha menacingly.

Sasuke backpedaled away from the powerful man, quickly going through handsign's for a "Lightning release: Thunder Lance" He had to settle for using the lightning chakra for a tazer as Orochimaru rushed, launching several punches and kicks, setting the boy back on his heels.

Sasuke cursed as he ducked under several strikes that would have definitely broken something had he not used his eyes to divert the path of the attack just slightly. Flicking a quick glance back at his teammate he couldn't help but curse again seeing the unconscious Uzumaki laying against the tree he had struck. _'Dammit Naruto I could use some help!'_

Naruto of course heard none of this, unconsciousness could be a right bitch sometimes.

_**-Meanwhile in Naruto's busted up head-**_

"Ugh...what the hell hit me?

**"Orochimaru hit you, and you are suffering from a concussion where you struck that tree"** Kyubi's voice responded quietly, trying her best not to aggravate the blonde's already serious wounds.

"Wonderful..." Naruto rubbed his head gently, already feeling the phantom pains from his conscious mind as they told him in no uncertain terms that shit was fucked up. Kyubi noticed his discomfort and approached him from behind, laying a hand on the blonde's head, sending a small bit of her chakra there to stop the pain.

**"I'm already sending chakra through your body to help heal the damage, but it won't be fast enough to continue your fight against Orochimaru."** Her voice was subdued as she relayed this information to him.

"Dammit!" Naruto curse. "If only we could make it to the tower and backup." He laid his head in his hands and rubbed it gently. "Do you think flooding my system with your chakra would work kyu?" He spoke finally, raising his head from his palms. "At least enough to charge me up and scare the bastard off?"

The red headed vixen hmmed for a moment as she mentally surveyed the damages to Naruto's skull. **"It could work, but it's going to hurt after you get done with it."**

"Doesn't matter." He growled. "I just need to spook the bastard off until we can get reinforcements."

**"Very well."** She motioned him over to her where she laid one of her delicate hands on his head. **"This may sting a bit."** A red vapor like chakra formed in her hand, before it flowed into Naruto. It started as a pinching pain but then grew to a ragged clawing at the boy's skin as he let out a strangled

Naruto's eyes snapped open in the real world, a growl of pain and anger erupting from his chest. His eyes fell on his teammate Sasuke who was twitching in pain at the snake Sanin's feet, a dark tri of marks forming on his neck in the shape of three tomoe.

**'Dammit, he marked Sasuke!'** Naruto growled in fury, releasing some of his killing intent the Sanin's way.

Orochimaru glanced over at Naruto for a moment in curiosity. "Ahh, I see, so that's who you are." He mused abashedly. "I always wondered who they stuck the Kyubi into and here's living proof." He chuckled evilly as he watched a rich red chakra erupt from Naruto's body, his fox ears and tail erupting out of his clothing as the ethereal chakra formed around the appendages. "Kabuto-kun said that you had a sensory bloodline, but I never expected it to be something like this, truly you are an impressive little mon-" whatever else he was going to say was lost on the Sanin as several dozen spears of electricity dug into the tree where he was standing, separating him from Sasuke by a wall of jagged lightning.

Creating a clone, Naruto had it retrieve Sasuke as he faced Orochimaru down. To his credit the snake Sanin at least had the mind not to watch as the clone gathered his creators teammate.

Instead the traitor kept his slitted yellow eyes on his opponents slitted red ones. As soon as the two cleared the field and the lighting spears dissipated the two titans of jutsu clashed, Orochimaru with his skill and knowledge and Naruto with his raw chakra density and power.

On the sidelines Naruto's clone found Sakura huddled around the side of a tree nursing a wound on her leg. She looked up quickly expecting the Snake was coming after her, especially with the dense killing intent nearby, but she relaxed slightly when she saw that it was Naruto carrying Sasuke's unconscious body.

"Will he be alright?" she asked the clone quietly.

"Yeah." The clone answered. "That bastard Orochimaru just gave him a cursed seal, the boss'll seal it up tight after he get's done wiping the floor with the bastards sorry ass."

"You're a clone?" She then glanced around the tree to catch a glimpse of the two terrors clashing farther away in the forest, She caught a glimpse of Naruto, sheathed in a deep maroon cloak of chakra, with his tail and ears extended out further than normal by said chakra.

"Yeah, boss had to call on Kyubi for help." he replied absently, before what he said seemed to truly register He stiffened and sent a glance Sakura's way but was confused when he saw how casually she was handling it.

"I already knew, at least somewhat." She replied to the clones look. "Sasuke talked to me about it on the way here to the forest. It doesn't take a genius to put two and two together Naruto."

The clone chuckled. "Then you must have come up with it rather easily since you're a genius after all." before a serious look crossed his face as he watched the battle between his creator and the Snake Sanin, committing to memory all the bastards moves used, so he could analyze his jutsu and styles used, maybe figure out how to add them to his arsenal later.

A blush crossed Sakura's face at the clones praise, remembering quite clearly how Naruto had explained that his clones were basically an extension of himself, anything they said or did would be what he would say or do if he were in their place. And knowing that her teammate valued her intelligence like he did made the girls heart flutter slightly, she had been rather withdrawn from everyone since the mission to wave, but somehow, someway the blonde idiot that was her teammate was worming his way into her heart. The girl didn't have time to think over these feelings as a large explosion rocked the surrounding tree's.

"Kukukuku, not bad Naruto-kun, I daresay you have more potential than Sasuke-kun, maybe I should mark you as well?" The Sanin's tongue crossed his lips as he damn near salivated at the blonde in front of him. This boy would make the perfect vessel for him, with the boy's complete elemental affinity and Sasuke's Sharingan eyes, he would be unstoppable. The mere fact that the boy seemed adamant to stay within his own body did nothing to discourage the traitor, not even when he stared throwing low ranked offensive jutsu of every element the Sanin's way. Several shards of ice and stone stuck from the trees around him, there were also several smoking holes in those tree's where an errant lava or fire release had burned away the bark, also quite apparent were the disintegrated and rotten pieces of tree that had succumbed to his lightning or boil release techniques, missing the Sanin completely of course. Hell, not even the grasping branches and clawing limbs from Naruto's wood release had stopped the Sanin's mad grin as he forced his quarry back on his heels.

"I think it's time this little game came to an end Naruto-kun. We both have places to be, people to kill." Orochimaru's face grew predatory.

"Bring it snakeface." Naruto growled, slipping into a kenjutsu stance, his blade and body thrumming with all five elements, bringing him close if not up to par with a Jonin in raw power and speed.

Oroichmaru grinned, rushing forward with his Kusanagi drawn, clashing against Naruto's element enhanced ninjato, unleashing a shockwave of power that threatened to overtake everything in the area.

_'This power is incredible.' _Orochimaru practically panted in excitement. He was going to mark this boy as his next physical vessel and the Uchiha boy would his new eyes, just the thought sent shivers of sick pleasure up the snake's spine. All he needed was an opening to get a bite in, just one opening that he could exploit.

That moment soon came when Naruto flinched in pain as Kyubi's chakra started to take its toll on him. He had spent the past 10 minutes throwing biju powered jutsu at Orochimaru and it was starting to drain his own reserves and allowing the corruptive powers of Kyu's chakra to eat away at his body. He knew he was finished the moment Orochimaru flew through several handseals, his neck elongating and shooting through the half dozen feet between them to latch his fangs into the blonde's neck.

"Gahh." Naruto gasp, already feeling the dark, corrupting chakra enter his system. _'KYU! Drop what you're doing and memorize whatever the hell snake fuck is pumping into me, you know as much about seals as I do so try and memorize how the curse mark sets itself in.'_ He would have said more but pain overwhelmed him as Orochimaru's mark started to burn and force him to his knees. He was glad to feel more than hear the fox woman's nod that she would do so. Naruto was done for the fight that was apparent, but he wasn't done getting his final licks in that's for damn sure. With a final rush of energy the genin grabbed Orochimaru's neck in a vice like grip using what little of Kyubi's chakra he had left, then with a roar of defiance he brought his ninjato up and through the traitors neck, severing the thing from the bastards body. Naruto however didn't think for one moment that he had killed the man, reaching up he grabbed the bastards head and tore it from his neck, tossing the thing over towards his body. Naruto glanced at his shoulder where a fair portion on the pain was coming from to see the three tell tale tomoe marks on his flesh. _'You got this shit memorized Kyu?'_

**"Yes Naruto-kun. This is a very nasty seal and I can already feel it trying to corrupt your chakra. I've sent my chakra to the area to limit it's movement for now and give you some breathing room, but you'll need to rest soon."**

_'Got it'_ Naruto attention was brought back to Orochimaru's supposed corpse as the thing seemed to shake and stretch for a moment before, in a spray of juices and gore, another Orochimaru seemed to rip itself out of the throat of his body, to the shock and disgust of the one's watching

"That was a nice try Naruto-kun." The man clapped slightly, on the outside full of bravado and self assurance, but on the inside he was silently thanking whatever gods were looking out for him since the boy had come awfully close to killing him at that moment of weakness. A crooked smile crossed his fac. A moment of weakness now gone and the boy was on his knees at his feet, where he should be until the Snake Sanin could eventually swap bodies with the boy.

"Well, I think it's about time I made my exit." The man backed up against the tree behind him. "Till next we meet Naruto-kun." The man seemed to fuse with the tree until his form disappeared completely from view.

_'Fucking bastard.'_ Naruto grunted, still in an abnormal amount of pain as he made his way to his teammates. Once there he received a very teary hug from Sakura, who had witness him getting bit on the neck and thought the worst.

"Don't scare me like that you baka!" She cried into his torn shirt as the boy patted her on the back, to be perfectly honest he was really out of his element at that moment.

"Sorry to interrupt boss, but I think it's time we get the hell out of here, those explosions were bound to bring some of the more ballsy teams in and I for one don't want to stick around here for longer than I have to." His clone had already picked up Sasuke and had him over one shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

"Yeah." Naruto agreed leaning on Sakura for support. "I'm nearly out of chakra and as soon as that happens this fucking seal is going to drop me, we need a place to hide and rest for now."

His clone and teammate nodded and took off toward the tower, it only took them a few minutes to find a defensible position to camp out; A giant hollowed tree with the front covered by a bit of shrubbery to camouflage it a bit.

"Ok, this'll have to do." Naruto grunted, raising a single hand to Sasuke's neck. _'Kyu, juice me enough to place a seal on dumbass here. It doesn't have to be much.'_

**"One moment...ok there."** Naruto felt a small surge of energy in his body, along with the burning it was causing.

With a grunt of effort the Blonde genin formed a few handsign's and placed his hand on the cursed mark. The mark began to glow slightly before it was encircled by a moderately simple seal that Naruto had seen in one of his study books. It was an Evil Sealing technique that sealed off corrupt chakra. With the last of the light dying down a single, simple circle was placed around the mark, sealing it off from the rest of Sasuke's body. "There, that'll have to hold." His world began to swim, eyes crossing in dizziness. "Nighty night." Before he fell face first to the ground.

Sakura who had watched the scene for a moment looked on in worry as her two teammates lay unconscious in her care, it really, really didn't fill her with determination like either of the two idiots would have claimed. No, right now she was feeling cold, alone and... Her attention drew to Naruto's face, even in unconsciousness he had a serious look on his face, like he was doing something of great importance, even while asleep.

Seeing her teammates resolve helped the girl find her own. With a grunt of effort, still favoring one leg as the injury from earlier had yet to set. The girl went about work setting up some traps, quite a few of them taught to her by Naruto himself.

Siting back in the cave like tree, the girl stared out over the clearing outside the tree. Her teammates needed her so she would guard them with her life. She looked down at the kunai clutched in her hands, thoughts going back to the man she had killed.

Yes, she had already killed, this was no different.

She'd protect her friends, or die trying.

_**-ooo-**_

_**UGH, finally finished with this bruiser. Standing at an impressive 9000 odd words, this is a pretty long entry so I hope you guys enjoy it.**_

_**Real quick question, Naruto gets the Sharingan, yea or nay? I have an idea on how this will work and I'm just wanting some ideas, should I give him the Sharingan or not?**_

_**Also I'd like some opinions on the Orochimaru fight in this chapter, good? Bad? Meh?**_

Daihyōbakuha - Great Ice Explosion


	17. Chapter 17

**2 things happened. **

** 1. Procrastination happened. Yeah. It was a magical time where I had lost all interest in everything. Productivity was NIL.**

** 2. Life happened, it coldly and mercilessly dragged my happy ass away from my comfy computer chair to dump said ass naked and fearful into the sandy arena of responsibility. It's metaphorically taken weeks to get said sand out of my undercarriage.**

**So, to keep from losing interest in this story I had to force myself to write this, I enjoyed some of it and some of it I absolutely hated, so if this chapter suffers for it I can only offer my condolences since it's either that or watch this story peter out and die, which I wont allow so I'm going to do it anyway... If there's any mistakes anywhere don't be afraid to tell me, I don't bite...much.  
**

**So yeah, that.**

**Also, due to me reading an absolutely MAGICAL fanfic of a certain pairing... for those of you who wanted a certain person in the harem, yeah she's going to be in the harem, just not right now. It's going to be awhile I can tell you that much. However, I'm just going to let you guys stew on who this certain person may be.**

**Fic of the day:Tis Femina by Sythe. This is a time travel, gender bender fix fic. It's basically a 26 year old 4th shinobi war veteran Naruto who has nothing left to lose and goes to battle Madara one last time to the death using his most powerful technique to try and save the few humans left alive. Instead, he wakes up around 100 years in the past, groggy, confused and most of all...in a woman's body?**

**Song of the day: **TC - Do You Rock? **You know the drill.**

_**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, nor do I make any money off it. Kind of obvious by now, don't you think?**_

_**-ooo-**_

"speech"

_'Thoughts'_

**"Kyubi speech"**

_**'Kyubi thoughts'**_

Jutsu

_**-ooo-**_

_**Chapter 17: Noises in the Forest**_

Frantic footsteps echoed in the deathly quiet forest. Anko's pace was break neck as she searched the forest for...Him. It had only been minutes since she a team of ninja had found a team of grass ninja's with their faces ripped off; she took off for the forest at once, It was _his_ technique after all. Her teeth grit in frustration as she though of her bastard of a sensei. He was here now, in these exams and possibly after the Uchiha kid...and maybe even Naruto of all things. Her heart caught in her throat as she thought of her husband having that bastards mark. The years that she had spent with the blonde gaki had been some of the happiest moments in her life, and the possibility that it could be taken all away chilled her to the bone.

"Kukukukuku, well if it isn't my old apprentice, come to see me have you?"

Anko's blood ran cold as she landed on a branch, a kunai already in her hands. Her entire body went rigid as she felt a presence behind her. Spinning with the blade of her kunai leading Anko aimed for a debilitating strike right from the off.

Only to have it be stopped by a grasp on her wrist.

"Now now Anko." The snake Sanin hissed, his face only a few inches from hers. "Is that any way to greet your old sensei?"

Anko spat in his face and struck him in the jaw. It was only a glancing blow as the man had twisted his head just slightly to let the punch glance off, losing most of it's strength. Retaliating, he kicked the woman away. "I guess you're not happy to see me then?" His cold mocking tone nearly drove Anko into an unstoppable rage and only the years of patience drilled into her from having to deal with the little ball of annoyance that was Naruto kept her from rushing the bastard.

"As if." She growled. "I'll be the happiest woman in the world when I see you dead at my feet."

"Hmhmhmhmhmm. Interesting choice of words there Anko-chan." The man's piercing, slitted yellow eyes bored into her. "When your little pet Jinchuriki will be kneeling at mine soon enough."

Anko eyes widened for a moment before they narrowed in rage. "What did you do! Why are you even here!?"

"Hmhmhmm. I'm here for a few new prospects, these chunin exams do bring out the best of the best after all." The mans voice turned into a feral purr. "Two participants in particular have caught my eye."

Anko grit her teeth, she was aware of what he meant. "Sasuke and Naruto."

A mocking clap met her words. "Correct Anko-chan, you always were smart, it's a shame you could never be more, my failed little experiment."

Anko saw red, her entire body coursed with fury, adrenaline pumping wildly through her veins as she let out a hoarse scream of rage.

Orochimaru blocked the first punch, before his eyes widened imperceptibly. "You've gotten a bit stronger since the last time Anko-chan." The next punch went low only to be blocked as well. Then a kick, which he couldn't block so he had to bend his body almost vertical to dodge. Not like it was hard after all since his body was one of the most flexible things around, like a human slinky he bent over backward, planting a kick into Anko's stomach, launching her into the air.

Anko recovered quickly, landing on the side of a tree trunk before launching a volley of shuriken at her former master.

"You'll have to do better than that." He mocked, dodging the feeble attack, but that had merely been a feint as Anko came in from the sides.

"How about this then!" Another kick to the head, only barely dodged this time.

_'She's speeding up...'_ grabbing another punch and diverting it to the side he surprisingly caught an elbow to the jaw from an in close cross strike. _'That wasn't Snake Style.'_ He smirked. "So you've been doing a little tinkering with my style while I was away as well? How naughty of you Anko-chan, and here I thought you'd try and beat me at my own game." Dodging a punch he caught another elbow to the ribs. _'She's gotten strong in my absence, interesting.'_

Anko leapt back and lifted her arm up level with the snake Sanin's face "Striking Shadow Snakes!"

"You think you can defeat me with my own technique? Striking Shadow Snakes!" The two attacks collided, both swarms of snakes biting and tearing at each other as they all at once dispelled, leaving behind a cover of smoke, which Anko plowed through, Kunai leading.

Orochimaru pulled a Kunai of his own to block. Sparks flew as the blades met, their shining surface reflecting the eyes of each in the reflective metal.

"You cant beat me like this Anko, even you know this." The Sanin deflected the next slash of a kunai. "You don't have the skill to best me, only time and age can a student overcome the master, but we both know that age holds know meaning for me." Orochimaru chuckled at his little joke, while many didn't know of his body swapping jutsu, Anko had known about some of his plans before he had left Konoha and her behind, the body swap being one of them. The grinding sparks of metal on metal flashed again as the two struck with kunai, fists, elbows, knees and feet. A kick to the head being diverted here and a slash to the midsection blocked and pushed harmlessly to the side, only a few nicks and strikes ever got through to do any lasting damage.

It truly was a dance to any outside observer, like most Jonin level fights where both combatants were soft style taijutsu experts. Another flurry of punches were sent Orochimaru's way, only one or two got through to do any significant damage though, and only one of those was even serious as she had held a Kunai in her hand while she had inflicted it. But no matter, for every hit she got in Orochimaru would give her five in return, by the end of their little warm up the woman had far more many cuts and bruises than Orochimaru did.

"You're slowing down Anko-chan, how about I hold one hand behind my back, that might make things interesting." He continued to mock and berate her until the snake woman had reached her snapping point, summoning up a fair amount of her chakra she created two sealless Kage bunshin, a bit of a gift that teaching that chakra powerhouse of a husband of hers and had them approach the Sanin from the sides as she struck from the front. "You think these doll's can defeat me?" He sounded amused. "Foolish." The two clones fell upon Orochimaru with a vengance using their shadow kunai to add pressure to their assault.

Orochimaru was playing with Anko for the most part as he dispelled her two clones, taking a few hits in return, that is until Anko had used the slight opening her clones had made to grapple the man against a tree and pinned his hand and her own through with a kunai after knocking his blade away.

"Now this is a compromising situation don't you think?" The Snake Sanin chuckled.

"Tell me why you're here you bastard, she pulled another kunai from her pouch and placed it at the man's neck.

"Kukukuku, you think that this can stop me?" He Grabbed Anko's wrist before she could move to slit his throat, pulling it to the side and away from the blood pumping veins. "As for why I'm here, I told you earlier, I'm here to look for some amusing tools, I found _those two_ in particular to be most amusing. I even gave them my mark." The sickening smile he gave her nearly made the woman gag, then what he said hit home.

"You bastard!" Just the thought that her husband had been poisoned by this fucker set her blood boiling again.

"Oh don't worry, I'm sure they'll both beat the odds and survive, if not...oh well."

"Why did you even mark Naruto, we both know you can't change bodies with a Jinchuriki."

"Hmhmhmhm." Orochimaru lifted his head and laughed upward in mirth. "Ahh, but that's the magical part of science my dear, it's amazing what one can do with a few samples of DNA and bit of time and loving effort." He smirk at her confused expression. "I can easily have an army of loyal vessels cloned and bred to my exacting specifications with both boy's bloodlines Anko-chan, can you just picture it? The perfect body." He leered at her. "And to think I once considered you for a vessel, how foolish of me.

Anko nearly gagged.

In another time and another place the woman might have actually tried to kill her sensei along with herself with the Twin Snake Sacrifice Jutsu , but frankly speaking the woman had too much to lose by doing that, and she was also Pissed. The Fuck. Off. So she did what her perfectly sexy husband would have done in that situation.

She slammed her forehead and by extension her forehead protector into her former masters fucking nose.

Blood flew, as the sharp sound of cartilage breaking could be heard, along with a sharp intake of breath from the Sanin.

It was a tactic that Naruto had used during his spars with her back when he had no skill to speak of. He had a hard as hell head, even harder then most headbands and he put the thing to use many, many times during their spars. Hell, even now Naruto was a brawler at heart and when push came to shove that little brat would fight dirty, like dirtier than two women in a lesbian mud wrestling competition, dirty.

"Did you just headbutt me?" The snake Sanin asked in an almost novel curiosity. "I thought I taught you better than that."

Not one to ever be outdone by her hubby Anko ignored her ex-sensei's words and struck the bastard again...and again...and again...

In fact after the next 10 or so consecutive strikes, Orochimaru's face was beginning to take on a nice purplish hue, like that of the markings around his eyes actually, so much was the facial beating that the man actually started cursing her.

"Would you- *Smack* "Stop Dam-" *Smack* "Fucking sto-" *Smack* QUIT HEAD BUTTING ME YOU CRAZY BIT-" *SMACK*

In hindsight he probably should have created a mud clone to take his place during that beating but he was actually rather tired after facing both Naruto and Sasuke, and then on top of that his surprisingly skilled former apprentice. It was most likely due to this new body of his, he had switched only the month before and it hadn't been as responsive as he'd hoped it would be... not to mention he was reeling from the first few headbutts to really get enough concentration to do so.

Anko's forehead meanwhile was beginning to hurt even by Naruto's pain threshold standards and she couldn't really break the hold she had on her sensei to give her enough room to work with, so opting to do as much damage as physically possible before they separated the woman decided a bit of feminine wrath was in order and repeatedly slammed her knee into the Snake Sanin's crotch.

Orochimaru's eyes crossed for but a moment before he let out an unmanly howl of pain, working on an adrenaline and sense of self preservation he hadn't known he had, the man threw Anko off him to the ground, causing her to strike her head and knock her senseless for a moment. As he staggered to the side with a distinctly noticeable limp he cursed the fact that while he may have had the body of a female at that current point in time, through his jutsu which changed the outward parts of his body, he remained distinctly 'male' in certain areas, and now wasn't exactly a good time to be a guy, or even a woman for that matter, since getting hit there hurt like a motherfucker regardless.

Letting out a gasp of air as his stomach nearly emptied itself the man decided it was best to cut his losses and just get the hell out of there before that crazy bitch of a student of his decided to abuse his body and man parts in some other viscous way.

"Well this*Wheeze* has been fun" No it hasn't "But time *Wheeze* is short, I'll be *Wheeze* seeing you again *Wheeze* Anko." The man turned and slipped into trunk of the tree he was standing next to, actually giving a bit of thought if he actually 'did' want to meet that crazy bitch again.

Anko, despite the pain in the back of her head and the thought that her husband was possibly dying in this gods forsaken forest was grinning up a storm, she had made that bastard run away, she'd struck him where it hurt, a place she'd never had been able to strike him before, dealing damage she'd never dealt to him before. It wouldn't be till much later that she realized the significance of that moment.

_**-ooo-**_

Three sets of eyes watched quietly over a clearing, a single, large hollow tree being it's only distinguishing feature along with the trio of ninja taking shelter inside; Two of them asleep, the other watching over their sleeping forms.

"The pink one looks dead on her feet, we'll wait till morning, then we strike." The bandaged Dosu muttered the command just loud enough for his teammates to hear.

"Got it." Zaku nodded before turning to Kin. "Don't fuck this up" He growled quietly. "Or you'll pay for it later."

Kin scoffed. "We wont fail against a little brat like that." That seemed to appease him as he turned back to glare at the three konoha genin. _'Asshole'_ Kin mentally cursed the man as she to turned her attention back to the clearing.

_**-Morning-**_

Sakura's eyes blinked several times as she fought to stay awake. She had spent several hours in a meditative like state to get as much rest as she could for what was to come.

A slight rustle of branches alerted the young girl.

A slight flick of the wrist and a single senbon flew out to strike the ground right next to a small squirrel.

Sakura sighed in relief, keeping up the ruse. As the little animal ran off another rustle got her attention. A small smirk crossed her lips.

Three forms jumped from the bushes to land a few dozen yards from Sakura

"You've been up all night guarding the two brats little girl." Dosu walked forward a step. "But it isn't you we're after. Wake up the Uchiha, we have a bone to pick with him."

"No." She glared at the three. "He's injured, he couldn't fight you even if he wanted to.

"Ain't that a damn shame." Zaku laughed, before his eyes turned deadly serious. "We could care less, Either you wake him or we'll kill all three of you right now."

"Screw you asshole." Sakura growled, flipping him off.

"You bitch!" Zaku made a move to rush her.

_'That's right, walk right into my trap.' _Sakura mentally prodded him, she could tell the guy was a hothead and a little provoking was called for.

A hand shot out and grabbed Zaku before he could make a move thought. "Don't be a fool Zaku." Dosu pulled the volatile boy back and walked forward stopping in front of a patch of grass. "You might have gotten us with this girly, but you made one crucial error" He reached down and lifted up the patch of grass, ."This kind of grass doesn't grow here."

While Dosu was disarming Sakura's trap, Kin was watching the girls facial expressions intently. _'She's not scared?'_ Was the first thing she noticed, besides a small frown at how easily Dosu had found her trap the girl hadn't made a move to do anything yet. _'She's got guts I'll giver her that. Kinda wish we didn't have to kill her.'_ Shrugging, such was life she'd just have to deal with it.

Dosu stood up from his crouch and dusted his hands off. "Go." he ordered, leaping through the air, his teammates not far behind. As the air rushed past them Dosu noticed something strange, Sakura hadn't moved an inch...and she seemed to be...smirking.

Yeah, Sakura smirked, all the while slicing a small wire hidden behind her, releasing an absolutely MASSIVE log from the tree tops, swinging like a pendulum straight for the three Sound nin.

Dosu's only visible eye widened "A trap from above!?" only for a scoff to escape his lips. "Amateurish." He pulled the sleeve back on his right arm, exposing a large metal gauntlet with holes all along its surface. Placing a hand on the logs surface, a wave of pressure blasted through the hollow log. Dosu's bandage covered smirk of triumph was however stalled when he again made eye contact with Sakura. _'She's still smiling?'_ A small sliver of white entered his vision, barely perceptible except for a momentary flash of morning sunlight off it's colorless surface.

Dosu's eye widened in horror as he noticed many other flecks of white all around him. He had just enough time to witness Sakura hold up a single handsign before his entire world filled with white and all sound left him.

_**-ooo-**_

Eyes all around the forest turned toward the large explosion echoing through the forest around them.

Tenten raised an eyebrow at the sheer pressure the explosive wave exuded. "Sounds like someone was on the wrong end of an explosive tag...and a lot of them at that."

"It matters not." Neji dismissed the explosion, they already had their scroll. "Let's find Lee and get to the Tower."

"Hai."

Kiba landed on a tree limb, flattening his ears to his head with his hands as the loud report of the explosion blew past his team, popping the ears of all three members. "Ow, what the hell was that." Akamaru whined in his hoody flattening his ears as well.

"It sounded like an explosive tag." Hinata pointed out landing next to his left side.

"Many of them." Shino agreed, landing on his right.

"Yeeeah, whoever would use that many explosive tags I certainly don't want to meet 'em." Kiba altered his trajectory as he hopped from tree to tree to get to the tower while avoiding whatever or whoever had tripped those tags.

"What was that?" Temari stopped pre leap to stare off into the distance as a loud bang filled the forest.

"It is unimportant." Gaara droned. "Keep moving."

"You heard the man." Kankuro leapt past her. "Chop chop."

Temari pouted and hurried to catch up to her two brothers.

"Man, what the heck was that?" Shikamaru lowered his head as a gust of wind and noise passed over his head, he quickly ducked into some bushes to get out if sight.

"Sounded like explosive tags." Choji whispered, taking refuge in the bush next to him.

"I say we go check it out." Ino voiced next to them.

Both boy's heads snapped to her.

"Are you crazy Ino? There's no telling who could have set those tags off. Do you HAVE a death wish?"

"Yeah, what Shikamaru said, we don't need to be caught up in anything like that." The pudgy Akamichi stared uncertainly in the direction the explosion came from.

Ino huffed at the two's response. "You two need to get a backbone, Naruto-kun would have gone."

"We're not Naruto." Shikamaru groaned. "And since when have you been so gung ho?"

Ino lifted her nose in the air haughtily. "Naruto-kun likes outgoing and strong kunoichi, so I'm going to become stronger so I can get him to notice me." Little hearts appeared in her eyes as she let out a little perverted giggle.

"Troublesome..."

"Come on, let's go, maybe they killed each other and we can have two scrolls to barter with." Ino grabbed ahold of her two teammate's collars and proceeded to drag them towards the epicenter of the explosion.

"Hmm?" One of Kabuto's teammates grunted, hearing the far off explosion.

"Ignore it." Kabuto ordered. "Lord Orochimaru wants us to study the competition and weed out the weaklings."

"Right." he nodded.

"OH." Rock Lee's eyes lit up. "Someone must have allowed their youth to explode!" He yelled in a hushed whisper. Guy had at least had the intelligence to keep his youthful student from screaming at the top of his lungs in a search and capture style mission, preferring to spread their use or youth through their actions in those situations. "This seems interesting, I wonder what could have caused such an explosion?" As the youngest of the two green beasts followed the direction of the blast to investigate. At ground zero we find Sakura leaning against the back of the inside of the tree, rubbing the back of her head where the outer edge of the blast had launched her into the tree.

"Miiight have used one too many explosive tags." Sakura chuckled to herself, before an arm went up, the metal of the gauntlet Naruto had gotten her blocking a senbon that nearly took her between the eyes.

"You're going to pay for that girl." An angry voice growled as the smoke cleared from the clearing , the forms of the three sound ninja came into view. All of them were burned in various places and their clothing was singed and torn in several areas, including a metal gauntlet on the mummified man, which had cracked into several pieces and lay on the ground at his feet.

In response Sakura pulled another Kunai from her pouch. "You wouldn't be like that if you'd just left us alone." Not budging an inch Sakura stood up, this time intent of physically defending herself. She still had a couple traps set up around the clearing, but nothing between herself and the sound trio, she'd have to lure them in if she was going to beat them.

Zaku took a step forward shakily, he was by far the most injured, but at the same time he was the angriest of the three and that gave him just enough power to fuel his next attack. Raising both of his hands up to point the at Sakura he screamed out his jutsu. "Zankūha!" He his roar was drowned out by the sound of his own jutsu.

Sakura's eyes widened in fear as the wave approached. A scream rang out over the roar of the wind.

_**-ooo-**_

"Ugh...my head, Kami that seal sucks." Naruto sat up in the middle of his forest like mindscape, the sky around him giving off a slightly ominous gray clouds that Naruto took note of, he also noticed many of the trees around him looked sickly and dying. "What the heck is going on?"

**"It's Orochimaru's seal."** Kyubi spoke up behind him.

Naruto glanced to the side to see the fox woman leaning against one of the trees with her arms crossed, where her body touched the tree it looked far more healthy than the rest.

Naruto glanced around and saw many of the trees were the same way. "I take it the curse mark is trying to corrupt my mind?"

Kyubi nodded, frowning slightly. **"Yeah it's kind of irritating, it's taking chakra from your system and corrupting it, then sending it back into you to warp your coils so you'll become dependant on the thing."** She let out a sigh. ** "Luckily for you I'm mitigating the damage with a few spikes here and there with my chakra, seems like snake face doesn't like biju chakra jammed into his soul that much."**

Naruto's eyes widened. "His SOUL!" His voice was filled with incredulous anger "The motherfucker pumped a piece of his soul into me?"

**"Yeaaah, about that." **She chuckled a little. "**You're going to enjoy this." **She turned on her heel, breaking contact with the tree behind her, which immediately started turning a slight grayish tint like the others. Naruto fell into step behind her, his head still throbbing from the previous battle, his overuse of Kyubi's chakra and Pedomaru's wonky seal screwing with his coils. After a few minutes Kyubi and Naruto arrived in a clearing where a ring of dead looking trees with purple leaves stood sickly in a ring; A wall of semi-clear red energy encircled said ring.

"I take it this is where my neck is in my mindscape?" A nod answered his question. "So where's snake fuck at?"

**"Over there."** The fox woman pointed to a deformed looking...thing that was undulating on the ground.

_**"Helloooo Naruto-chan!"**_ An insane and strangely ...off...tone of voice greeted him. The humanoid like creature reared up on its haunches and smiled a wicked smile with a face too chibified to be threatening. the things body was completely out of proportion with the rest of its body and looked like a Buddha statue with overly large, comically snake like eyes. _**"Give me your body Naruto-chan, we can have so much fun together nyoro nyoro!"**_ At the end of the strange verbal tic the...thing started undulating on the ground.

"What...in the hell...is that?" Naruto drawled out, staring at the abomination in front of him.

**"Yes...well...I studied the make up of the seal as it was setting in and several thing raised a warning flag for me."** She pointed to the fat malformed thing. **"Orochimaru's seal corrupts the chakra network allowing it to weaken your mental defenses, after it does that it slowly drives you crazy, allowing the piece of Orochimaru's soul to easily take over your mind, from what I can tell it's so the rest of his soul can take full control of your body later on."**

"That still doesn't answer my question as to why he looks like a pedophile Akamichi that used the human bullet technique through a woman's beauty salon."

**"Ah..." ** Kyubi blinked owlishly as she chuckled, rubbing her head in embarrassment. "**Well, the only way I could keep Orochimaru's mental intrusions from influencing you was to use my chakra to make his appearance and message so ridiculous that you could never take him seriously. The seals power is based on verbal consent after all, if you give in to him he can take control more easily."**

"So...you turned the piece of his soul that was injected into me into a total retard?" A hesitant nod answered him. "Kyu, have I ever mention how awesome you are?" He literally glomped the kitsune woman, laughing all the while. "Oh Kami this is hysterical."

Kyubi chuckled under him. **"Indeed it is, but now we have to do something about him, before he can come back from his senility"**

_**"WE SHOULD BECOME ONE, COME TO ME MY BELOVED! NYORO NYORO!"**_

"Can't we just kill it?" Naruto offered, ignoring the abomination and it's heresy

Kyubi sighed. **"I've already tried that, the best I can think is either you remove his soul from outside the seal through some form of counter seal, or push his soul out from the inside, killing it in the process."**

Naruto glanced over his shoulder at the deformed Orochimaru then back at Kyu. "What are the odds of removing it from the outside with a counter seal?"

The fox woman tapped her chin errantly in thought. **"Since Anko still has hers and that fool of a godfather of yours hasn't removed it yet I can say with certainty... fairly close to zero..."**

"And pushing it out from within?"

**"Alone? Maybe 50/50. With me here though, we could probably do it easily, I just need your help?**

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Just how hard could it be to remove _that_ jackass?" he pointed over his shoulder at Orochimaru's soul which had started masticating on a tree root.

**"You'd be surprised"** She glanced over at the man in question who had moved on from eating tree bark and had stared humping a lemon tree, which caused Naruto's eyes to twitch for a moment since that tree _was_ technically a part of his mind, so Orochimaru _was technically _mindfucking him at the current time. ** "The bastard is a crafty one I can tell you that." **Ignoring the grunting and nyoro's the crazy bastard in question was making. **"Even with me poking holes in his mentality with my chakra he's still a competent fighter, he's just much, much slower and less flexible than his true self."** The two of them watched as the abomination of a snake finished doing whatever it was he was doing, which disgusted them both. ** "And with most of my power devoted to containing the cursed seals corrupting influence and...that...I don't really have the strength to hold both back and push him out at the same time, which is where you come in."**

Naruto frowned a bit as he went over his options, what few there were anyway. Coming to a decision quickly, Naruto slammed a fist into his palm. "Alright, let's kick this snake bastard ass out of my head."

Nodding in agreement Kyubi place a hand on the blonde's shoulder. "**Listen closely then Naruto-kun."** She pointed to the snake man. **"I'm going to lower the barrier I set up, the moment I do this he's going to try and attack you, I want you to hit him with the strongest jutsu you know of, he's slower now so he can't dodge it as easily but he's still just as strong so don't stop until you destroy his soul."**

Naruto nodded, turning towards the soul fragment before flicking a two fingered salute over his shoulder as he focused all of his attention on the Snake Sannin. "Can do Kyu." moving his hands into his patented cross handseal the Uzumaki formed six shadow clones in a line, three to either side of the original. Flying through several hands seals each the six clones original breathed deeply.

**"Now!"** The barrier of energy holding back the corrupted trees was lowered and almost immediately the trees surrounding that ring started to decay as well. Naruto didn't pay attention to that. No, he focused all his concentration on the rotund Snake Sanin rushing him, trying to force his will on the blonde's mind.

Naruto would have none of that. Three clones brought a hand to their mouth and blew. "Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!"

While those three clones blew a massive wave of fire the other three clones exhaled sharply. "Wind style:Daitoppa!"

Finally the original slammed his palms together, pulling both sets of jutsu together. "Hidden art: Great Firestorm!"

The two sets of three jutsu, collided on a single focal point, striking each other, each wrestling for supremacy. Until both gave way at the same time, the wind spiraled around the fireball and the core of the flames compressed under the winds power causing the entire thing to heat up from friction and burn even hotter and larger.

The spiraling vortex of doom bore down upon to the corrupted soul fragment, who didn't even have time to squeal out a 'nyoro' before he was struck by the ball, knocking the wind out of him and sent spiraling upward, being torn limb from limb by the churning flames.

Within moments the conflagration stuck an invisible ceiling after a hundred or so yards of upward travel before the space the fireball was occupying seemed to flex.

**"I'll be back!" **The fragment screamed. **"Your body will be mine NYORRRRRO!"** His scream extended as his soul was forced from Naruto's mindscape, eviscerating the thing as it went, only stopping when the fireball reached its maximum height and exploded, clearing the sky of all the dark clouds that had cast such a dark shadow on Naruto's mind.

"There, that should take care of him." Naruto nodded, glancing around at several of the trees which had regained some of their luster, though a frown formed on his face moments later when he noticed that there was still some corruption leeching its way through his body.

Kyu noting this filled him in. **"You took care of Orochimaru's soul but the corrupting influence of the seal remains. It's only bought you more time to remove the thing."**

Naruto stared for a moment before sighing heavily. "I see, I guess I can take some time out after the Chunin exams to see how this thing works, now that we have all the information on how the thing set's in I can finally..." Naruto body went taunt as a thought came to him. "What about Sasuke's curse mark?" He glanced over at Kyu. "You think he can force Orochimaru from his seal like I did?"

The fox woman's expression mimicked his own. **"I don't know, he could probably hold it back thanks to your seal but I don't think he can do what you just did so easily."**

"Is there any way I can help him with that?" Naruto asked curiously, it wasn't like he was going anywhere soon.

Kyubi brought a thoughtful hand to her chin, scratching an errant itch in thought. **"It's possible, I have a connection to him with my chakra in the seal of his, I could send some of your chakra through to help him a bit, but not much, too much of yours an my chakra in his system could kill him, so only enough for a quick chat."**

"That's all I'll need." Naruto growled, he wasn't going to let that snake bastard have his way.

**"Alright then."** The fox woman placed a hand on Naruto's head and closed her eyes, connecting herself to her distant chakra. **"This may sting a bit."**

Naruto snorted. "When does it ever not?" A small twitch of a smirk touched Kyu's face as she gathered both her and Naruto's energies.

**"Good luck." **Kyu wished him before his mental representation disappeared in a flash of white light.

_**-ooo-**_

Sakura held her arms crossed in front of her face, hoping and praying that her end came swiftly. But when the end never came and a loud meaty thwack registered to her ears, the pinkette slowly lowered her arms to see the strangest thing she'd ever though she'd see.

An ass, covered in green spandex, crouched in a battle ready stance only a dozen paces in front of her, facing two of the three Sound nin. A shallow trench was carved in the ground to his right, the angle of which barely missed the tree that she was standing in. A shocked realization came to her when she saw the Sound Nin that had tried to kill her laying on his back several yards away from the trench, a dark red mark slowly starting to bruise on his chin.

Rock Lee, rose from his crouch after having used a Dynamic Entry on Zaku, slowly taking his Goken stance, with his left hand folded behind his back, right hand held out with palm facing inward.

"Attacking one of my comrades when she is unable to fight back." The boy's large eyes narrowed just slightly at the three Sound nin. "I wont condone such unyouthful actions."

"Who the hell are you?" Zaku growled, eying the...thing in front of him in the horrendous green spandex.

Lee stood a little straighter at the question, before a small smirk crossed his lips, his stance shifting just slightly, muscles preparing to push him forward. The three sound nin tensed at this but Lee ignored them in favor of yelling out his name to them. "I am Konoha's Beautiful Green beast! ROCK LEE!" His eyes narrowed again, this time showing a dangerous glint. "And I shall be your opponent."

_**-ooo-**_

_**FINALLY DONE WITH THIS CHAPTER UGGGH.**_

_**I checked the reviews of last chapter and it was fairly even on the yay and nay on the Sharingan, I'm actually surprised by some of the responses to it actually. Several of the really good Nay comments convinced me though, so I've decided NOT to give Naruto the Sharingan. BUT that doesn't mean I'm not going to play with the idea I had to actually give Naruto the eyes, I'll give you a hint. it involves the cursed mark.**_

_**Also for those who said the Orochimaru fight was lacking last chapter... well, fine then, I guess it kinda was to some, I'm not that great at describing fight scenes but even I can tell it was a bit smaller than what I wanted it to be. You will just have to make do with Anko rearranging his face and kneeing the man in his twig and berries this chapter.**_

_**As you can see I used the English tv translation of the shadow snake attack that Anko and Orochimaru use, mainly because I like the name, some of my friends and cohorts (As I like to call them) criticized the English name because they thought it was cheesy.**_

_**Sit and spin is my response to those who think Striking shadow Snakes doesn't sound badass.**_

_**As for the rest of the chapter, how did you like the humor of this one, it sort of hit me that with Naruto's influence Anko has become even more crude and devious, they basically propagate their own bad behavior, which is why Naruto is a bit of a pervert :3**_


	18. Chapter 18

_**This chapter was a bit rushed, but I was trying to get it out here for all you peeps before midnight for a very special reason.**_

_**ONE YEAR ANIVERSARY BABY!**_

_**Also this thing broke 300 reviews last chapter, which is ASTOUNDING for me. I want to thank each of my reviewers for this because you guys are the boss sauce! Thank you all for reading up until now and I hope you enjoy the chapters to come.**_

_**I've been on a stint of Fate and Overlord fics lately, and I'm going to be posting the first chapter of a Fate/stay night fic idea that I've been toying with for awhile now here pretty soon to see if it gets any interest. So yeah, a new story idea is getting posted here in the next day or two and now go check out some Fate and Overlord fics, cuz they be bangin.**_

_**To continue this theme**_

_**Fic o tha day: **_Nerve Damage by CrossyCross_** All you need to do is read the summary honestly. **_

"Shirou converts his nerves into makeshift magic circuits every time he needs to use magic. A human body has millions of nerves. A magus has on average twenty circuits...maybe he's on to something there..."

_**The story just get's more insane from there, OP god mode Shirou with 2628 magic circuits and a story where multiple servants get summoned during the 5th grail war. I think, last I checked, there was like 27 Servants. Shirou has four Sabers, FOUR. All of them them Identical. Saber, Saber Alter, Saber Lily and Saber Nero from Fate/Extra.**_

_**All of whom are Identical except for Nero who has larger... make that much larger tits. Where the normal sabers are an A bordering a B cub Nero tops off the scale at around D to DD... yeah... And the story parodies the hell out of that fact.**_

_**Hilarity ensues, it ensues greatly.**_

_**Song/s of the day: **_I'll Face my Dread to Reach the Mass Wiping Out _**A bunch of mash up's and dual mixes of Persona 3 songs, it's kind of badass so check it out.**_

_**Word/s of the day:**_ Bustier _**Because I like boobs, that is all.**_

_**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, I actually don't want to own Naruto right now Because Kishimoto is actually doing a good job with Sasuke right now. The story is so much better now that he doesn't have that size 12 emo dildo rammed up his ass.**_

_**-ooo-**_

"speech"

_'Thoughts'_

**"Kyubi speech"**

_**'Kyubi thoughts'**_

_**-ooo-**_

_**Chapter 18: Getting Real Sick of This Forest**_

Darkness. Darkness and moisture

Sasuke's eye's snapped open to that gloom only to quickly gag as a deep copper scent hanging in the air entered his nose.

Placing his hand down on the floor beneath him produced a wet sloshing noise, Ignoring the possibility that he was in some cave of some sort for the immediate need to find the source of that rancid smell. Holding a hand to his face the boy looked around for the source.

Sasuke's next breath caught in his throat as the bodies of his mother and father entered his vision. The coppery smell he had breathed in earlier was the odor of the pool of blood he was laying in. Gulping he Lifted his hand from the wet floor and brought it closer to his face. Deep crimson stuck to the hand, dripping down his wrist to stain his shirt sleeve. With a strangled gag the boy got to his feet, a bit of the red liquid seeping deeper into his clothing, forcing the smell to cling to him.

That smell, the noxious fumes that clung to his body the night of the massacre, the stench that had taken days to wash from his skin, the nightmares however... they'd taken much longer to get over, and now they were coming back full force, bursting in on the edge of his psyche, what he'd tried to suppress over the years with his own progress and the helpful social interactions with the few friends he'd made in the academy.

Naruto being at the top of the list, if it hadn't been for Naruto, Sasuke would have probably continued to brood in a self serving spiral of hatred until either his mind or his resolve broke, and neither boded well for him. The annoying blonde had put him on his ass constantly, that in turn set his Uchiha pride to boiling, which pushed him even harder the next time, until finally he'd had to admit to himself that Naruto actually was stronger than him. His pride had taken a hit that day, sure. But he soon realized that he hadn't felt that burning jealousy he'd usually attributed to his normal fights with the blonde

It was strangely soothing to have his ass handed to him by someone stronger him but not hold that win above his head.

**"So sad, so tragic."** A purr of a voice echoed out from the darkness. Sasuke's eyes snapped to the noise to find a younger version of himself standing in his old school clothing, casually watching him from behind a clear glass wall, the only thing allowing him to talk to Sasuke were several small holes in the pane of clear material.

But that wasn't what was strange to him, what was truly strange were the purple markings around his younger self's eye's. Sasuke's back went rigid as his younger self glared at him.

**"Mother, and father... they didn't have to die, if only you were stronger."** Mini Sasuke fixed his elder self with a glare, the tears in his eyes slowly turning red with blood. **"If only you weren't so WEAK!" **splashes of blood flew up as he watched his parents die in front of him.

"Stop it!" Sasuke yelled, crouching low to avert his eyes from the thing in front of him.

**"Oh, but why would you hide your eyes from me?"** The thing hissed, unable to move in for the kill because of the barrier but more than happy with his verbal assault. **"We both know if you had been strong enough you could have stopped Itachi, weakling."**

"STOP IT!" Sasuke grit his teeth as he curled into a ball on the ground. His hands were plastered over his ears so he couldn't hear the ghostly wail of his clan as the visions of the massacre played behind his eyelids, the memories burnt into his brain by his brothers' Tsukiyomi.

**"You just stood there and watched them die, COWARD! WEAKLING! You'll never kill Itachi pretending to be a ninja! You don't have enough hate!"**

The last Uchiha's breathing caught in his throat as his mind hyper focused on his younger double, the haunting words of his brother echoing through his mind.

_'There is no value in killing the likes of you… My foolish brother… If you want to kill me… curse me! Hate me! And live a long and unsightly life… Run away… run away… and cling to your pitiful life.'_

A hoarse scream escaped Sasuke's lips-

Only to get cut short by a blow to his head, silencing his hysterical cries.

"That's enough of that." A rather familiar voice echoed in the dark.

Sasuke's black eyes rose groggily, the twin black orbs catching a pair of black shinobi sandals near the glass partition where his younger self seemed to be shouting at him. Only he couldn't hear the curses as whoever had kicked him was leaning against the glass, covering the small holes that allowed his younger self to talk to him. Slowly his eyes rose again to meet a pair of slitted blue ones, set above a frowning face crossed with three lines on each side of his cheeks.

The Uchiha's eyes widened. "N-Naruto?"

"The one and only." He replied cheekily.

This was so surreal. That was the first thought in the Uchiha's mind, the next was how the hell Naruto was...well... wherever the hell 'here' was.

"Cozy little mindscape you have here Sasuke." Naruto quipped, glancing around the dark and dank nothingness around the single area of light in Sasuke's mind, an area that housed the bodies of Sasuke's dead parents. "Can't say much about the decor though."

Sasuke grit his teeth, it was Naruto alright. No one he knew of could annoy him and at the same time relieve him. Thanks to the blonds words he knew where he was, in his mind. "If this is my mind, what are you doing here?" Naruto wasn't a Yamanaka, he couldn't walk minds like Ino and her family... A fact that Sasuke praised Kami every morning for... So that begged the question why... or better yet HOW was he here?

Naruto snorted in amusement. "Well, for starters I used some of Kyu's chakra to seal off that hickey on your neck where Pedomaru bit you. That chakra linked us, it'll give me about five minutes to talk to you and to warn you about chuckles here." Naruto tossed a thumb over his shoulder at the Orochimaru-fied Sasuke, who was cussing at Naruto through the glass, though with Naruto's back to the wall you couldn't hear anything he said.

The Uchiha frowned as he watched his younger self make several rude gestures at Naruto's back. "And just what IS that exactly?"

Naruto looked over his shoulder at the fragment of Orochimaru's soul, finally seeing the gestures being flashed at him. "Heh, From what I can gather that right there is a piece of Orochimaru's soul, he injected it along with a very advanced sealing formula into your neck."

Sasuke turned green, that THING was a piece of someone else's soul? And it knew enough of his darkest thoughts and secrets to torment him like it had been moment's before? The boy felt sickened by that fact. "So. What exactly do I do about that?"

Naruto's annoyingly cheerful attitude fell. "That's all up to you actually." At the questioning look, he pointed at the mini Sasuke who had stopped it's muted ranting and now sat on the floor glaring a hole into Naruto's back. "This is _your _mindscape, right now I'm not able to do anything but talk to you. That thing however is directly connected to your body and can influence you, this wall I'm leaning against is a seal I set up around it to keep it from messing with your mind, looks like it wasn't strong enough and Pedomaru poked a few holes in it so it could talk with you." He moved away from the wall and walked closer to Sasuke, Orochimaru's soul piece jumped up from where it was sitting and started yelling out curses and using what it had dug from Sasuke memories to corrupt the boy but Naruto moved Sasuke away from the wall until it was only mildly annoying. "I can't do anything to keep that hole closed, all seals of this nature require the user's will to keep it in check."

"So if I want him to shut up...?" he left his question open to get a definitive answer from the blonde.

"You shut him up." Naruto agreed.

"Right." Sasuke glared at the snake who had dared infiltrate his memories, focusing all his mental will on closing the few holes it had made in the wall. At first nothing happened, then the glass like wall seemed to ripple a few times, the ripples passing over the holes causing them to shrink until nothing was left but smooth and clear glass.

"Now." Naruto sighed. "What do we do with you?"

Sasuke blinked, turning to his... friend? Yes, friend. "What do you mean by that?"

"Itachi." Naruto spoke simply. He only had to say that one word and several things happened in quick succession. Sasuke tensed up at the name, his face scrunched in mild anger and the lights of the room in his mind flickered a bit. "And that's exactly why." Naruto pointed out the obvious reaction to a simple name. With great effort Sasuke schooled his features and waited for Naruto to explain, a few tense muscles still visible on his neck.

"Sasuke." Naruto sighed. "Stop chasing Itachi."

The reaction was immediate. Sasuke's eyes widened, pupils dilating and an angry snarl forced its way past his lips. "How DARE you! Do you know what he's done? Do you know-"

Naruto's face was no less angry as he snapped at the livid Uchiha. "Of course I know!" He growled. "An-chan is a member of T&I and a former ANBU, she knows alot more than either of us do." The blonde boy sighed, releasing the built up tension in his body. "Something is really weird about that day Sasuke, something I haven't quite placed yet." He looked the Uchiha dead in the eyes. "But I don't think Itachi was working alone or killed them simply on a whim like the reports say."

That had Sasuke's retort caught firmly in his throat. "W-what?"

A single eyebrow rose. "Do you honestly think that one man could take down an ENTIRE clan of Sharingan users, in one night, without anyone realizing it before the job was done? Really?"

Sasuke was about to say that his brother was just that good when something stopped him, he really thought about that question for a moment. His clan was situated in over twenty acres of land, enough for the one hundred or so members of the clan to live with a spacious bit of land between each other, but that wouldn't stop the sound of death being heard by at least _someone_. It was a strange, there were always guards set around the entirety of the district, so someone would have seen or at least _heard_ something unless Itachi had taken down the entire guard for that evening. So either he spent the time to take down each guard (Which would take far more time than necessary) or he had help to take them down.

The last loyal Uchiha blinked several times before his eyes widened. If Itachi had help then...

"I see you're getting it now." Naruto smirked, nodding to himself. "If Itachi had help then it wasn't just him going psycho on his clan. This was planned, for a purpose."

A scowl formed on Sasuke's face. "And just what purpose could that be for?"

Naruto shook his head "You're not gonna like this."

The scowl grew deeper. "I could care less about what I like, the only thing that matters right now is finding out who else helped murder my family."

A deep sigh escaped the blonde. "I've always thought that the Uchiha massacre was a bit fishy, so I kept tabs on the more blatant rumors I could remember. The most damning one at the moment was that the Uchiha were possibly planning a coup."

A breath caught in Sasuke's throat. "W-wha?"

"I'm telling you this now Sasuke because it's highly likely that this was the case and the Hokage or someone high up in the village ordered Itachi to kill your family after countless negotiations failed. It's actually kind of obvious if you look at it from an ANBU's standpoint, something that An-chan beat into me from day one, to look underneath the underneath." Naruto grew quiet a moment, a thoughtful look on his face. "From what I could find out, the Uchiha hated most of Konoha because the people thought the Uchiha were the cause of the Kyuubi attack." Naruto pointed a finger at Sasuke. "A fact that is attributed to one of your patrons, Uchiha Madara. He who was able to control the Kyubi with the power of his Sharingan. That single bit of bad history ostracized the Uchiha and the Uchiha, after some time of course, reciprocated. It's actually quite funny really." He chuckled here, a small depressing laugh.

"Why the hell would that be funny?" Sasuke growled. "The way you say that, the People of Konoha are at fault."

Naruto nodded. "That would normally be the case...if they were wrong."

Sasuke eye's widened for the second time that conversation. "Y-you mean they...

"I've had a lengthy talk with Kyu-chan about that night." Naruto looked away, a pained look on his face. "A man with an orange spiraled mask that only revealed the man's right eye. My mother, the previous Jinchuriki of Kyubi was killed by the man when he extracted the Biju from her stomach. Sure, she lived for a short while after that but died protecting me from Kyu-chan while the fourth sealed her. My father died sealing her within me." He rubbed his hand on the seal on his stomach, a fact that wasn't lost on the Uchiha.

"Your dad was..."

"The man who essentially killed my mother and father, the man who destroyed half of Konoha and killed hundreds, the man who brought the fear of the villagers upon your clan, igniting the flames of rebellion within the clan and the man who wore an orange swirl mask to hide all of his face, all except his right eye." Naruto stared Sasuke down. "A Sharingan eye."

Sasuke fell to his knees at that revelation. Indirectly or not, the evidence was just too possible, to hard to ignore. He'd heard a few rumors now and again about his clan, he usually never gave them much thought but a few fit too close to Naruto's scenario for comfort. Many considered the Uchiha to be a treacherous clan (the ability to steal things as a bloodline will do that for you) and it wouldn't take much to fan the flames of doubt after that. If his clan were attempting to overthrow the village... killing hundreds... most likely weakening the village enough for other villages to attack. It would have at the very least sparked a civil war, if not a full on Shinobi World War.

Suddenly the odd behavior of his brother around the rest of the clan made a sick kind of sense. Itachi probably knew that he'd have to do something like that eventually, he had always been more loyal to the village rather than the clan, he had seen the pride the man had in just doing his best for his village, which made this all the harder for him.

Harder because Sasuke prided himself on his reasonable hatred despite his unreasonably large hatred for Itachi. No, that hatred may have been unreasonably large but he hated Itachi for a reasonable reason. He couldn't rationalize hating the village for ostracizing his clan when it was an Uchiha that was the cause of that hatred in the first place. Even if he could muster up some form of anger at them, it was quickly doused when he realized that the village was as much the stooge of the Masked Uchiha as his clan had been. The man hadn't destroyed Konoha with the Kyubi like he had most likely wanted (Because really, why else would you unseal a Biju on the outskirts of a village?) but the masked Uchiha had sown the seeds of doubt that had destroyed his family and weakened the village from within.

And Sasuke felt anger, a rich, vibrant and all consuming hatred. Not for his brother. No, he could wait for that now that he had some information on the 'why' of that night so many years ago. Right now he was feeling a burning anger at the masked man who had started this entire debacle in the first place. If he hadn't unsealed the Kyubi... his family and Naruto's family...

That doused the flames of his rage as he turned an unwavering eye on the blonde in question.

"This is why I said to stop chasing Itachi Sasuke." A hand snaked it's way up to the blonde's brow to rub a sore spot there. "It's highly possible that Itachi was just as much a victim as you, not only that... Do you really think that you're the only person who could kill Itachi?" That question caught the young Uchiha off guard for a moment. "Itachi is an S-Rank Criminal, it's highly possible that someone could collect his bounty or he could even succumb to some illness at some point, living, then dying an incredibly short life." Naruto rolled his eyes at the obviousness of his next statement. "Hell, you have a solid 6 years on the man, you could just wait patiently for him to age to a point where he's weaker than you then kill him when he you have a significant advantage or find him and poison his drink with a blinding poison to weaken him."

A hand shot up to forestall the coming tirade. "We're ninja Sasuke, before you go off on things like 'honorable' vengeance and a fair fight. Remember that we are NINJA" He put emphasis on each agonizing letter there at the end. "We don't fight fair, its the whole reason we're taught stealth in the academy, so we can simply sneak past an enemy or fuck him up from behind."

The last Uchiha opened and closed his mouth several times, raising a finger now and again to try and make his point known, but each time he tried he lowered it just as quickly.

Naruto decided to wrap this up, he could feel himself slipping away from the connection between them. "If nothing else then look toward the goals you've set yourself for a reason to stop chasing the man."

Sasuke looked up, a faraway and lost look on his face.

"One of your dreams is to bring the Uchiha Clan back to prominence, that means having kids..." At the blank stare Naruto groaned in annoyance. "Dude, you're one of the smartest people in my class can't you... tch, whatever... The point is this, Itachi is an S-ranked missing-nin, a man who could have probably ran for Hokage if he wanted to. You're planning on chasing this man down _in his prime_ while he's still capable of bringing down Kage level opponents. Even if you somehow managed to fatally wound him, how well off do you think you'll be?"

An almost audible click was heard as an imaginary light bulb above the kids head turned on.

"Yeah, that's basically it, even if you kill him you might end up sterile from a sneak attack... or ever worse, dead. If it were me...I'd leave the guy well enough alone until he was old and cripple and have my children gang rape his ass after I taught them everything I know." An evil little smirk came to Naruto's lips as that little scenario flashed before his eyes. "You're so high strung about it being an Uchiha who kills the guy, just because it has to be an Uchiha doesn't mean it has to be you."

The blonde smirked "That's the whole point of me coming here, besides the witty banter of course." Naruto waved cheerily to him, his body already starting to disappear back to his real body. "So what's more important? Clearing your clans name or making sure there's still a clan to clear the name of?" With that, the blonds entire body disappeared from sight, leaving a confused and lost Uchiha to go over those words, all the while a disgusting little ankle biter copy of him with snake like eyes was loudly but at the same time silently cursing him from behind the magical 'STFU' glass.

_**-ooo-**_

Rock Lee was many things. A hard worker, a splendid ninja and a beautiful green beast (I can only feel sorry for whatever woman...or man... he ends up with, because 'beast' is an accurate description of the boy's equipment, how he hides the thing in a skin-tight green leotard is beyond even this author's extensive perverted knowledge) But beyond all of that, the boy was first and foremost.

A taijutsu specialist.

A fact he made readily apparent when the Mummy wrapped sound nin tried to rush forward and beat our fuzzy browed savior.

Readily apparent because the mummy received a very distinct sandal print to the chin, courtesy of said fuzzy browed savior. Another kick midair sent the mummy flying back into his other male teammate, leaving the girl to try and defend herself.

Lee rushed forward, leading with a kick that would have taken the girls head off had a large slicing wave of wind not blocked his attack, knocking Kin away in the process to land heavily in a heap.

Lee turned back to the two boys who had extricated themselves from each other and were now watching him with a circulatory stare, looking for any exploitable weaknesses.

There were none. Without the Melody Arm on Dosu's right arm, the trio of ninja would be having a hard time with this opponent.

"RAHHH, Leaf hurricane!" Rock lee jumped towards the two boy's spinning as he went to place more destructive power behind his kick.

"Zaku, dodge!" The mummy man pushed his teammate out of the way and leapt to the side avoiding the telegraphed kick easily, what he hadn't counted on was seeing an infuriating smirk on the boys lips as he punched him in the jaw, loosening a few of the mummy's teeth in the process.

_'Divide and conquer eh? The cheeky little brat.' _ He had separated them quickly to keep them from tag teaming him. His Melody Arm made up the brunt of his attack list, since that no longer worked... well this called for some improvising. After flipping through a couple handseals the Sound nin placed a hand against the ground.

"Hidden Art: Echo Pulse!" Where his hand hit the ground, the sound waves created by the hard tap sent rippling waves of force through the ground, forcing the green menace to leap back or risk losing his balance and possibly taking a blow that wouldn't have normally have occurred.

Like the giant wall of wind that was bull rushing it's way through his landing spot for instance...oh...

Lee grit his teeth, holding his arms in front of him in a cross to guard against some of the damage. Like getting tossed into a meat grinder the boy struck the wall of force and was propelled back, the rippling wind girding away at his steel-like forearms. Coming out of the attack with only light wounds the green hurricane that was Rock lee set back on his opponents pushing the two boys back into a corner.

The two Sound nin worked well together to block most of the more lethal blows to their person but they didn't have any more ground to give. Then a sound seemed to bring Lee's attention away from the two. A good thing too or he'd have caught a pair of senbon in the back of his head.

Kin had joined the fight.

Kin watched as her two teammates were pushed back by the green freak in a leotard. _'Seriously, why the hell is he wearing that?'_ Ignoring that self imposed question for the moment, the girl tossed several more bell tipped senbon at the boy, and like she expected the green beast, like his namesake, swatted the offending metal away. All according to plan.

With a single tug on almost invisible wire, the bells tolled several times, which seemed to surprise Lee for only a moment before his knees hit the ground painfully.

Rock Lee was a creature of obscene balance and dexterity, the boy had spent most of his Shinobi career mastering every ounce of his Sensei's style, but one of the unfortunate downsides to his style was that it was too precise in it's motions, focusing all that power required a balance that was matched only by the styles direct opposite, the Jyuuken. As a result of this mastery of balance anything that threw that balance off would cause an almost complete loss of control.

Dosu, seeing that the boy was down for the count, smirked to himself. "That's good Kin, keep the brat on the ground." His eyes flashed over towards the tree where their quarry had again taken refuge. "And now to take care of the target." As he approached a single kunai flew across the expanse to strike the ground near his feet. Leaping back, the exploding tag attached to the weapon exploding in a small plume of fire. "Tch, still want more then girly?" He glared at the pinkette who had several more of those explosive Kunai in her hands. Dodging those as easily as the first the man started taunting the girl. "You are so pathetic, you cant even hit a moving target, just how bad of a ninja are you?"

The next couple of explosive tagged kunai came whizzing by just a bit faster than the last.

"Oh did I make someone angry?" The man continued to crow dodging ever closer to the girl, when the kunai stopped raining in on him, he took a moment to see that yes, the bitch had finally ran out of explosives. "Hah, that's all you got?" He walked forward to end the annoyance once and for all."

Click. Dosu's eye's widened as he looked down. Under an almost undetectable layer of grass a small trip wire stuck just enough above the ground for it to be effective yet unnoticeable.

Silently groaning to himself the man leapt away, escaping the inevitable explosion... only to land in yet another trap, This one gluing his feet to the ground.

"Shit!" The man cursed, panic setting in as his feet stuck fast to the sticky substance. Looking up the man found yet another log (This one quite a bit smaller) barreling towards him.

Thankfully for Dosu, Zaku was nearby and willing to help. "Don't worry Dosu, I got this. ZANKUHA!" The air blast tore through the log and turned it into so much kindling. "See, that was nothing."

"Then how about this!" Said the gauze wrapped fist as it met the cocky sound nin's jaw.

Um...what?

"Zaku!" Dosu yelled, pulling out a kunai and tossing it at the green blur that had decked his teammate.

The green blur stopped to swat the knife away, revealing Rock Lee standing there in a relaxed fighting stance.

_'How?'_ Dosu growled mentally, staring out of the corner of his eye to see Kin sitting in a sinkhole almost completely covered in water. a small twitch revealed that the Pink bitch had used some kind of Suiton jutsu on her. _'Damn. We won't be able to beat these brats if we cant hold this guy down.'_

"What the heck is going on?"

Dosu glanced out of the corner of his eye again and noticed the other two members of team 7 stumbling out of the hollow tree that the pink head had stashed them after the green boy had saved her.

"Damn." he cursed again, jumping over to Kin, yanking her a bit harder than necessary. "We're falling back Zaku!" The mummy tossed several smoke bombs to the ground, sending out a massive amount of smoke to cover their escape.

Rock Lee waited for several minutes for any sign of a sneak attack before he fell to one knee. he had used the first gate, the gate of opening to get over the nausea of having his equilibrium shot to hell and now he was slightly exhausted.

The leotard wearing genin approached team 7 slowly. "Are you ok Sakura-san?" he asked the girl, trying to calm the aches in his muscles.

"Y-yes, thank you Lee." She bowed her head as much as she was able, having spent too much chakra releasing a rather obscene amount of water from one of the gauntlets that Naruto had given her to incapacitate Kin. "Are you going to be ok out here on your own? Do you want us to help you find your teammates?"

"Thank you but no, Sakura-san. I can find them easily enough." The two nodded to each other again in thanks. One for the initial save, the other for getting him out of a tight spot during the rescue attempt. Lee turned and leapt off into the tree line, leaving the three alone.

"What happened here Sakura?" Sasuke asked quietly while hanging an arm over Naruto's shoulder and he doing the same in return, both still weak from overcoming their curse marks corrupting influence.

"We were attacked by Sound-nin Sasuke." She nodded her head in the direction of where Lee had left. "I was able to hold them off until Lee could drive them away himself"

"We can get the full story after we find a new place to rest." Naruto grumbled. "And some food while we're at it."

_**-Several hours later-**_

"Ah that's better." Naruto sighed, rubbing his full stomach. "Nothing better than grilled fish with teammates." He joked, tossing the bones of his meal into the fire. "And now we have a general idea who to look our for in the third part of the exam." A growl escaped his lips. "Those sound bastards are going down."

"For once I agree with you." Sasuke chuckled, tossing his food into the fire as well. "I'm going to scout the area, you two wait here."

Sakura looked up from her fish. "Be careful out there Sasuke."

"Hn." The boy turned on his heels to walk off into the forest.

Naruto stared after his teammate for a few moment's before turning back to Sakura. "Five ryo says he's going to take a piss and he's too shy to do it in front of us."

Sakura snorted on her food, waving what was left of her fish in his direction. "I'll take that bet."

_**-ooo-**_

"Ugh." Sasuke sighed, zipping up his pants after having relieved himself on a nearby shrub. "And now for scouting."

"EeeeeeK!"

"Or saving damsels in distress." Sasuke rolled his eyes. "That works too." The boy was beginning to think Naruto was rubbing off on him. Running in the direction of the scream, the last Uchiha came across a scene that looked like it had been pulled out of a fairytale... well a very grim fairytale, but a fairytale none the less.

A young Grass Kunoichi with neon red hair was sitting against the base of a tree, her two teammates dead at her side and a giant bear...well...bearing down on her.

Sasuke made quick work of the beast with a Fireball to the back. Like all problems, that one could be solved with liberal use of fire.

The red haired girl looked up at Sasuke, tears running down her cheeks in lingering fear and a slightly larger amount of gratitude. "T-thank you." She whimpered.

Normally Sasuke would have just nodded and grunted in classical Uchiha form before hopping off to meet back up with his teammates, but something stopped the Uchiha and kept him rooted in place.

Oh...the girl had a death grip on his legs...that's why...

"Thank you soooo much!" The girl cried, large tears seeping into his pant leg as she hugged the already numbing limb.

Unused to this level of gratitude the young Uchiha didn't really know how to comfort the girl beside what he had done for Sakura and he really didn't want to hug the girl that was already trying to fuse herself with his leg.

"It's nothing." Sasuke grunted, rubbing the girls back gently trying to calm her down so she could remove her vice arms from around his leg, all the while getting a vaguely uncomfortable feeling in his nether regions seeing as the girl was practically rubbing herself against him."

The girl looked up and stared at the now blushing Sharingan user. "Hey, you're the teammate of that Uzumaki guy right?" Rubbing teams from her eyes, the red head now had a calculated look on her face, like she was planning something devious...just without the devious part.

"Yeah." Sasuke said at length. "He's my teammate. Why?"

"Could I come with you so I can talk to him please?"

Now that question threw the Uchiha for a loop. _'Really Naruto? ... You're drawing women to you while you're not even here...' _The Uchiha sighed for what seemed like the thousandth time in the last hour. "And why should I let you talk to my teammate?"

"Because." The girl smoke smoothly, whatever fear she held for the bear seemed to be long gone. "My name is Karin by the way, Karin Uzumaki."

Sasuke's jaw dropped at that little confession, blinking owlishly as the girl formed a small smug smile on her lips.

"So are we going to talk to him or what?" The girl asked, that smug little smile not leaving her face for an instant.

_**-ooo-**_

"Really?" Naruto stared at Sasuke and the redhead behind him for several moments, his eye twitching in annoyance. "Even when I'm not trying I'm finding family in the strangest places." He smiled ruefully. "Still, it's nice to see another Uzumaki out there. Karin, was it?"

"Y-yes." The girl squeaked, her voice quavering just slightly now that she was in front of the man she wanted to see. She was shaking, Naruto noted but not for the reasons that the three Konoha genin thought. Karin was first and foremost, a sensor nin. And right now she was feet away from the largest chakra battery in the world. It would be like comparing a her matchstick to a steel forge going full blast.

"It's really nice to meet you" Naruto smiled, bringing a small blush to the little girls face, though oddly enough, instead of getting closer to him, like most women would have by now, she instead moved away slightly and squished herself closer to Sasuke. Naruto blinked. _'Well that's odd, though I can't say I don't like this bit of blackmail material'_ He got a little closer and the girl moved farther away in turn.

"Is something wrong Karin?" Sakura asked the girl curiously.

"N-no." She replied shakily. "I-it's just that I-I'm a sensor, a-and Naruto-san is..."

"Shining like a neon sign on the sun?" Naruto suggested.

The girl nodded, scooting back a bit more which now placed her damn near sitting in his teammates lap, snuggling as close as possible to the boy. "It seems you have a fan Sasuke, and this one doesn't screech like the others." A smirk found its way on the blonde's lips. "I think that should love at first sight for you."

Both Sasuke and Karin turned a brilliant shade of red, doing an admirable job of matching their key features, namely Karin's hair and Sasuke's Sharingan.

"B-baka!" The red head stuttered. "I-I just met Sasuke-kun."

Naruto's eyebrow rose at that. "'Kun' is it? Moving awfully fast aren't we?" If anything the girl turned an even brighter shade of red, almost literally shrinking down like a little puppy in Sasuke's lap.

"I am going to stab you Naruto." Sasuke growled in annoyance.

"Take a number and get in line, asshole." Naruto quipped, turning his back to his team to stare at the tower off on the horizon, the sun just peaking above the trees on it's way down, casting sharp reds and purples up into the air. "I think we ought to move out now while we still have he chance, you three up for moving?"

Sasuke shrugged his shoulder's. "Night's as good as daylight for a ninja."

"I'm fine with it." Sakura agreed.

"I-I guess I could go with you." Karin poked her fingers together, staring up at Sasuke quietly.

"I would have dragged you to the tower regardless." Naruto spoke out. "No family of mine is getting left in this forest on their own while I'm around!"

Karin nodded shakily, still wincing at the sheer _power_ emanating from the blonde's body.

"Then let's move out!"

_**-a half dozen hours later-**_

"Really starting to hate this forest." Naruto growled as they passed the same tree for the fifth time.

"Yeah, pretty sure we're in a Genjutsu." Sasuke flashed his Sharingan, to get a good look around. "Yeah, definitely a genjutsu. but I can't see the person who's casting it to break it."

Karin blinked, having not realized that they were in a Genjutsu until Sasuke had said something. "If you want to know where someone is, why not ask me?" I have plenty of practice finding people with my sensor abilities."

"You don't need to tell me twice." Naruto growled. "Just find these bozo's so I can flatten em."

"Right..." The girl backed away slowly from the angry teen. Taking a moment to center herself, the girl projected her senses off into the forest around her, picking up minute fluctuations of chakra. It was sort of difficult to pinpoint the signatures with Naruto's blazing sun standing right next to her but in the end she managed to find them. "There, at four a clock, one 32 meters ahead and 2 meters underground. Anything else?"

"Nope, pissed off." Forming a few Shadow Clones the boy and his doubles flew through a dozen or more handseals. "NARUTO SMASH! Earth Release: Earth Flow Divide!" Throwing out one of the few B-rank Earth Ninjutsu the boy knows, the ground split and ruptured several times around the area leaving a massive sinkhole where the girl had pointed at.

Like a haze the air around them faded and the Forest of Death Tower stood out even closer than it had before.

"Good." Naruto nodded, rushing off in the tower's direction.

"Is he always like this?" Karin asked cautiously, not wanting to get on the blonde's bad side.

"We've been walking in circles in a place he call's home." Sasuke ran to catch up with his teammate. "How would you like it if people cast a genjutsu on you in your home and _you_ wandered around for several hours in your living room?"

"Fair point." Karin frowned. "That would be pretty irritating."

"And Naruto doesn't play nice when he's irritated." Sasuke chuckled back.

"I'll keep that in mind..."

_**-ooo-**_

"Congratulations you three- urk." A single finger poked Iruka, who had met the three genin (plus guest) out in the lobby after they had opened both their scrolls together.

"I'm tired, hungry and annoyed, we can do this later." Naruto grumbled, poking the scarred chunin a second time for good measure.

The man in question nearly busted out laughing right there _'Never change Naruto, never change'_ After a small chuckle session the man lead the four (Which included Karin, whom the three vouched for, Naruto Included since he was going to do his best to get Karin to move to Konoha, there was no way in hell he was letting a family member stay anywhere near the same place as that snake in grass (lol) Orochimaru.)

"And here are your rooms." The Chunin opened door with several beds all in a row. "Get comfortable, you still have to wait two days for the second stage to end.

"Quiet now, bed." Naruto jumped the dozen paces to his mattress, did a flip mid-air then belly flopped onto the comfortable piece of furniture. "Karin's staying in here and tell me when the Hokage get's here so I can talk to him about her."

"Can do Naruto." The Chunin chuckled, shaking his head at the boys antics while throwing a little salute over his shoulder as he left.

Naruto flipped over onto his back and laid his head on a pillow, Idly noting that his two teammates and Karin were doing the same, the red haired girl sharing the bed with Sasuke of all people, who was trying to look all cool about it but was failing miserably, mainly because he was blushing up a storm because his cousin (What he assumed she was) Had latched herself back onto to his leg and was using Sasuke's thigh as a pillow, coming dangerously close to the goods for the Uchiha's liking.

The blonde grinned at his teammates misfortune, whatever the hell happened next, it could wait until he had some sleep, or he'd likely start going Kyubi on someone's ass.

Yeah, it could wait...

_**-ooo-**_

_**Ok, Again, a little rushed, but I as in a hurry.**_

_**Also I'm with Naruto on this one, The forest of Death just sucked all the desire for me to write for this story right out of me, so to remedy that. NARUTO SMASH!**_

"Hidden Art: Echo Pulse"

C/B-rank. Sends several waves of sound through the earth to throw an enemy off balance, More energy can be added and the resonant frequency can be synchronized with the surrounding area to cause more damage than normal which is why it is both C-Rank and B-Rank


End file.
